Subic Bay International Terminal has received last December the first call of Wan Hai Line’s consolidated Mindanao-Hong Kong-Taiwan (MHT) service, enhancing further the port’s capability.
The earlier MHT service — the fastest connection from Mindanao to Hong Kong and Taiwan as per Wan Hai — is being integrated with the Subic Express Service (SES), expanding the latter’s coverage five months after it was reactivated.
The port rotation of the MHT service now includes Subic, Batangas, Cebu, Davao, Shekou and Hong Kong.
Having the Port of Subic as its first port of call in the Philippines under the new service rotation, the SES is ideal for transporting increased orders for imported products and raw materials, said International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) SBIT is operated by Subic Bay International Container Terminals, a unit of ICTSI.
“As the first port of call in the Philippines, Subic benefits from the upgraded service’s improved transit time for mostly raw materials and imported products. Wan Hai consolidated the two services to optimize its offering in the intra-Asia trade, utilizing larger-capacity ships to meet increasing demand during the holidays and the run-up to the Chinese New Year,” ICTSI said.
Wan Hai’s SES was reactivated in June last year after a yearlong hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The service temporarily skipped port calls to Subic in June 2020 due to the pandemic and resumed regular calls at SBIT in June last year under a revamped rotation that includes Shekou, Subic, Batangas, Manila, Cebu, Taichung, Kaohsiung and Hong Kong.
The SES is operated by a pair of 1368-twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) boxships and offers flexible capacity that can expand to meet market demand for premium-rated cargo.In September last year, ICTSI said SBIT has increased its reefer handling capability by 15 percent, adding new reefer capacity in response to the Philippines’ growing demand for frozen commodities.
“Expanding the terminal’s reefer-handling capability enables SBIT to operate more efficiently and offer more flexibility in addressing our customers’ storage and delivery requirements. Ultimately, this allows us to maintain the high quality of service that SBIT has always been known for,” ICTSI said.
Located within the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, SBIT is the gateway to the Northern and Central Luzon markets. The terminal has a 600,000-twenty-foot equivalent unit capacity and is one of the most advanced maritime ports in the Philippines. – Ruelle Castro
