Foreign ports boost ICTSI earnings in 1st quarter

Port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) reported a 62 percent jump in its first quarter income this year to P165.8 million from only P102.5 million the previous year-period.

In a statement issued yesterday, ICTSI said the significant increase in its profits was due to additional earnings contributed by the Baltic Container Terminal (BCT) in Poland and the considerable reduction in Tecon Suape S. A.’s (TSSA) interim net losses following the return of its major shipping line clients in the second half of last year.

Consolidated gross revenues in the first quarter of the year amounted to P2 billion, an increase of 41 percent over last year’s revenues of P1.4 billion.

The incremental revenues of P585 million were derived mainly from new revenues from BCT and the increase in revenues of TSSA.

Meanwhile, the port authorities’ share in gross revenues totaled P606 million, 31 percent higher than last year’s P464 million.

The increase is largely attributed to the consolidation of BCT’s port authority payments, and to the increase in the Manila International Container Terminal’s contractual fixed fee payment to the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA).

Groupwide volume during the period was 423,934 twenty-feet equivalent units (TEUs), 37 percent higher than the year ago’s 308,355 TEUs. Total volume from the MICT and consolidated subsidiaries was 397,190 TEUs, up by 40 percent from last year’s volume of 283,436 TEUs.

First quarter volume at the MICT, ICTSI’s flagship local port, declined slightly by one percent, from 265,360 TEUs to 263,487 TEUs. Volume handled by BCT grew by 34 percent, from 66,471 TEUs to 89,251 TEUs. In Brazil, TSSA volume surged by 277 percent to 29,974 TEUs from 7,960 TEUs.