Container throughput at the Port of Subic in northern Philippines jumped 59% in 2015 to 123,558 TEUs twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from 77,618 TEUs in 2014.
This brought yard utilization to 30% and port revenues to P1.16 billion, overshooting by 25% the P908.6 million collected in 2014.
The figures were revealed by Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chairman Roberto Garcia to a visiting Taiwan delegation interested in investing in Subic Bay Freeport and helping develop the Port of Subic into a major port destination in Asia.
Taiwan International Ports Corporation (TIPC) chairman Chih-Ching Chang, in a meeting with Garcia at the SBMA office last week, said Taiwanese investors are eyeing Subic because of its location and facilities.
“Subic is the finest commercial and tourism destination in one that we have seen, and the future cargo shipping destination,” Chang said in a statement released by SBMA.
Chang explained that with the ports in Taiwan nearing full capacity, many shippers in the island-state are planning to invest overseas and among the preferred destinations is Subic, specifically within the Taiwanese-managed Subic Bay Gateway Park.
“Subic must prepare for the future as more cargoes are expected to come here from Taiwan because the port in Taiwan is already full. They are coming to Subic and we can help make that happen,” Chang told Garcia.
The SBMA chief said he is “confident that the increase in container volume handled by the Port of Subic will continue because many shippers have already experienced the convenience of using the Port of Subic.”
Chang led an 18-man delegation from TIPC for an ocular inspection of Subic port. Delegation members included Kuo-Ying Huang, TIPC executive vice-president and CEO of Kaohsiung Port; Min-Chuan Yen, director of Kaohsiung District Economic Development Association; and Carol Peng, president of the United Development Corp.
Chang noted that TIPC will host a meeting with shipping companies and port users in Taiwan, and part of the agenda is to convince them to ship bulk or containerized cargoes through Subic.
Meanwhile, as more Taiwan companies and other foreign investors eye locating in Subic, Garcia said he is spearheading a move to develop idle lands between Subic and nearby Clark Freeport for conversion to industrial use.
“Subic has no more space to offer and there, along the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, we can still develop at least 1,000 hectares for industrial parks that can be offered to investors,” Garcia said.
