Phividec Industrial Authority (PIA) yesterday awarded the concession contract to International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) for the 25-year operation and management of the Mindanao Container Terminal (MCT).

ICTSI said bagged the contract "being the bidder with the highest rated responsive bid at a concession contract."

"ICTSI is given 10 days from receipt of the notice to formally enter into a contract with Phividec,’ the company said.

The terminal located in Phividec Industrial Estate in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, is approximately 20 km from the city of Cagayan de Oro.

MCT, a flagship project of Mindanao is designed to accommodate an annual throughput of 270,000 TEUs. The berth length is 300m with a depth of 13m below the mean lower low level.

Losing bidders were the Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI), Amer Asia, Harbour Centre Port Terminals Inc., and Maersk Lines.

"MCT is one of the most important infrastructure needed to pump prime Mindanao development," Phividec said.

MCT’s three regular callers are Maersk, National Marine Corp. and Lorenzo Shipping Corp.

MCT has two gantry cranes and four rubber-tired gantries.

"The MCT, with its state of the art facilities and cargo handling equipment, unloads one container van in about 2.5 minutes as compared to the 10 minutes unloading in an ordinary port," it said.

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) is bidding out the new container terminal 2 (NCT-2). ICTSI is also expected to join the bidding.

ICTSI‘s subsidiary Subic Bay International Corp., bagged the New Container Terminal-1 (NCT-1).
SBMA said NCT-2 has a capacity of 300,000 TEU, which can be expanded to 600,000 TEUs and potential annual revenues of $6 million.

The annual lease for the port, which has a lifespan of 50 years, will be enough to shoulder the $60-million loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation that was used to partly fund the project.

ICTSI will spend some P473 million for NCT-1, mainly for the construction of an administration office, motorpool/engineering office, truck holding area, refueling station, and field office.