International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) will spend $250 million this year to finance its various expansion projects.
“This will be used for the completion of the expansion project at the MICT (Manila International Container Terminal) in the Philippines, the ongoing expansion at Matadi Gateway Terminal in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the new expansion project at Victoria International Container Terminal (VICT) in Australia, equipment acquisitions and upgrades, and for various maintenance requirements,” Enrique Razon, ICTSI chairman said at the company’s stockholders meeting yesterday.
Razon expressed confidence on the company’s prospects as it nears the inoculation of its workforce against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
“The collaboration of ICTSI and Bloomberry is the private sector lead in the procurement of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. To date, this is the largest combined National Government, Local Government and private sector order. When deliveries arrive at the end of the second quarter, we shall immediately roll out our vaccination program for (our) employees, their direct dependents and extended household members,” Razon said.
“In the meantime, we continue to be alert and prepared to adapt quickly as new information and challenges arise. We are certainly not letting our guard down,” he added.
In 2020, ICTSI handled a consolidated 10.19 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) containers, up 0.2 percent from 10.18 million TEUs in 2019.
“Our new terminal in Rio, Brazil contributed to the increase. Without Rio, volume would have decreased two percent — still a surprisingly positive performance given where we were in the early stages of the pandemic,” said Razon.
Razon said the most of part of 2020 was challenging due to the lockdowns and disruptions in every country where ICTSI was operating.
”We expected there would be an unprecedented contraction in global trade, severe enough to be historical in scale. We immediately slashed our capital expenditure program down to the bone and only continued ongoing capex, eliminating everything else. We likewise initiated aggressive cost reductions in light of the weakening demand in many of our terminals. To our surprise, once some countries began easing lockdowns, we started seeing month-on-month recoveries in volume throughout the second half of 2020. We saw the worst of it from April to June,” Razon said.
Several of ICTSI’s terminals managed to achieve operational landmarks in the challenging environments, according to Razon.
“Victoria International Container Terminal set a record in the Port of Melbourne, Australia for the highest container exchange in one single call, and was one of the star performers of the year. Adriatic Gate Container Terminal handled its 300,000th TEU, while Contecon Manzanillo handled its 1 millionth TEU,” he said.
“In July, we signed the concession to develop, operate and manage the Multi-Purpose Terminal of the Port of Kribi in Cameroon. And in October, we started commercial operations. Also, in October, Contecon Guayaquil signed an investment contract with the Ecuadorian state to further strengthen and develop the Port of Guayaquil with an investment of $18 million to boost the port’s capacity to handle neopanamax vessels,” he added.
In December, ICTSI completed the Manila International Container Terminal’s (MICT) Berth 7 expansion, raising MICT’s annual capacity to over 3.3 million TEUs.
ICTSI closed 2020 with a profit of $101.8 million, up 1 percent from $100.4 million in 2019. Revenues reached $1.5 billion, up 2 percent from $1.481 billion in 2019.
