Taiwan firm offers SBMA help to bring in more shipping lines

The Taiwan International Ports Corporation (TIPC) on Thursday expressed its interest in investing in this Freeport and in helping develop the Port of Subic to become a certified major port destination in Asia.

TIPC Chairman Chih-Ching Chang, in a meeting with Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman Roberto Garcia at the SBMA office on Thursday, said that 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.

Chang explained that because the ports in Taiwan are nearing full capacity, many shippers in the island-state are planning to invest overseas and among the preferred destinations for them is Subic, specifically inside the Taiwanese-managed Subic Bay Gateway Park here.

“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 (TIPC) can help make that happen,” Chang told Garcia.

Chang led an 18-man delegation from TIPC for an ocular inspection of the Subic port. The members included Kuo-Ying Huang, TIPC executive vice-president and CEO of the 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 be hosting a meeting with shipping companies and port users in Taiwan, and among the agenda is to convince them to send bulk or containerized cargoes to Subic.

Meanwhile, Garcia said that as more Taiwan companies and other foreign investors express the desire to locate in Subic, he has been spearheading a move to develop idle lands between Subic and the nearby Clark Freeport and convert these for 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.

The SBMA official also told the Taiwanese visitors that Subic has been making headway in terms of transshipment and maritime logistics services.

He said that Subic’s P1.16 billion port revenue in 2015 has overshot the 2014 collection of P908.6 million, thereby registering an increase of 25 percent.

Garcia attributed the growth in port revenue to the increase in the volume of containerized cargo recorded in Subic, from 77,618 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2014 to 123,558 TEUs in 2015. The port yard utilization is now 30 percent, he added.

“We are 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,” Garcia noted. (RAV/MPD-SBMA)

PHOTOS:
[1] SBMA Chairman Roberto Garcia (right) exchanges pleasantries with members of a trade delegation led by TIPC Chairman Chih-Ching Chang during a meeting at the SBMA office on Thursday. (AMD/MPD-SBMA)

[2] TIPC Chairman Chih-Ching Chang (left) presents SBMA Chairman Roberto Garcia with a memento during the visit of Taiwanese investors to the Subic Bay Freeport on Thursday. (AMD/MPD-SBMA)

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SBMA posted 12-percent revenue increase last year

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has again broken its own record of sterling performance in the past three years with a bigger growth upsurge in 2015, which rode on the swell of opportunities in the transshipment and maritime logistics sector.

SBMA Chairman Roberto V. Garcia said in a media briefing on Monday that the Subic agency had coaxed a broad-based revenue growth across all strategic business units (SBUs) in 2015, posting a 12-percent revenue growth and achieving an 8-percent increase in operating profit for the same period.

Previously, SBMA’s gross revenue stood at P2.44 billion in 2014, the highest for the agency since it began operations in 1992, while its operating profit or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization last year was at P1.39 billion, also the highest since 1992.

“The seaport/airport sector is now the leading SBU in Subic, with a 28- percent growth last year,” Garcia said during the news briefing.

He added that the growing transshipment and logistics revenue was bolstered by a 56-percent increase in the volume of containerized cargo processed in Subic, which rose from 77,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2014 to 120,000 TEUs in 2015.

Garcia said that, apparently, Subic has begun attracting legitimate shippers last year after being categorized as an extension for the Port of Manila in 2014.

“According to Secretary [Jose Rene] Almendras, there was no port congestion in Manila last year. However, Subic’s container volume still increased, so this can only mean that we have already attracted the legitimate shippers,” Garcia said.

Because of this, Garcia said SBMA is looking forward to bigger container volume in 2016. A 150,000-TEU target, he added, “would be easy [to achieve] this year.”

Aside from the growing transshipment and logistics revenue, Subic’s tourism sector also performed better in 2015, as it posted a 12-percent increase in tourist arrivals, bringing the year’s cumulative total to more than 6 million.

Nature theme parks, like Ocean Adventure and Zoobic Safari, contributed about 2.2 million to the 6 million arrivals for Subic in 2015, Garcia said.

Subic also posted in 2015 the highest hotel-occupancy rate in Central Luzon at 66 percent, as the meeting, incentive, conference and exhibition, and sports tourism niches gained more visitors.

“This is why more new hotels are being built here, and existing ones are expanding because there is a demand,” Garcia said.

He said that after several hotels and restaurants opened along Subic’s waterfront area in mid-2015, the Best Western Hotel was inaugurated late last year while the newest addition, The Reef Hotel, began construction.

Meanwhile, because of better financial performance in the last four years, SBMA was able to increase its capital expenditures from P30 million in 2014 to P40 million in 2015, as well as implement a 10-percent retroactive salary increase for all its personnel.

Garcia also said that, with better financial standing in 2015, SBMA contributed an estimated P630 million in dividends to the national government, an increase of 11 percent over its P570-million contribution in 2014.

SBMA’s outstanding performance in 2015, Garcia added, was capped by Subic’s recognition by fDi Magazine, a publication of The Financial Times of London, as “Global Free Zone of the Year” for Asia.

Subic also received two special awards from fDi last year: one for infrastructure development and another for reinvestment. (Henry Empeño, Business Mirror)

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/sbma-posted-12-percent-revenue-increase-last-year/

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