5 local bus firms purchase China-made CNG buses

Five local bus companies signed yesterday an agreement with two Chinese bus manufacturers for the acquisition of 140 bus units fueled by compressed natural gas (CNG), Energy Secretary Vincent Perez said.

The contract signing held at Kerry Center Hotel in Beijing was part of President Arroyo’s ongoing state visit to China.

The five local bus companies are First CNG Inc., Greenstar Express, HM Transport, NGV AdBus Corp., and RRCG Transport Systems Co. Inc.

The Chinese bus makers, on the other hand, are Anhui Ankai Automobile and Zhengzhou Yutong Co., with US-based Cummins Westport Inc. providing the bus engines.

Perez said the contracts was an offshoot of an earlier visit made by the bus operators to China last July to inspect NGV (natural gas vehicle) facilities in the country.

He said the buses are set to arrive by early next year and would be readily fielded out to service the riding public.

Perez lauded the local bus companies for heeding the government’s call to battle air pollution and accelerate the benefits of clean air by using natural gas as an alternative fuel for public transport.

"This is just the first batch of CNG buses that we will be seeing in our major roads. Clean and efficient buses that will improve the quality of our air," he said.

In launching her five-point energy independence and savings reform agenda last August, President Arroyo said that about 60 percent of the targeted 1,500 buses should have been running on CNG by 2010.

She said increasing the use of alternative fuels will significantly reduce the country’s dependence on oil imports.

Perez also praised the CNG bus manufacturers for providing well-performing CNG buses at attractive prices. A non-airconditioned original equipment manufacture (OEM) bus costs about $50,000 (P2.8 million) while an airconditioned unit costs around $70,000 (P3.92 million).

"China’s downstream natural gas industry has fully matured as most of its vehicles have now been converted to CNG. Any cooperation between the Philippines and China will help the Philippines develop its own assembly or manufacturing plants of efficient and economical CNG buses and parts," he said.

President Arroyo has aggressively pushed for the use of CNG as alternative fuel by launching the Natural Gas Vehicle Program for Public Transport (NGVPPT) in October 2001 to enhance energy supply security in the transport sector.

She likewise approved a number of policy initiatives to encourage private sector participation. The package includes income tax holiday for pioneering projects; one percent rate of duty on imported NGV industry related equipment, facilities, parts and components; and preferential and exclusive franchises from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) for NGVs on newly opened routes.

The Philippine government was also able to negotiate with the Malampaya consortium, the operator of the $4.5-billion Malampaya natural gas pipeline in Palawan, for an attractive and competitive 50 percent discount on CNG price as against the current price of diesel.