SBMA clears entry of two hauling firms in Subic

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has approved the entry of two cargo forwarders to provide support services to Taiwan’s leading shipping company Wan Hai Lines (Phils.) Inc. and facilitate on-time shipments to manufacturers.

SBMA chairman Feliciano Salonga said HL Speedy Trans. Inc. (HSTI), a local firm engaged in trucking and hauling services of goods and merchandise, and Mutual Fortune Express Inc. (MFEI), another freight and cargo forwarding company, will set up operations in the freeport.

"With the entry of Wan Hai, our locators can now ship goods directly to and from Subic. Then, the services of HL Speedy and Mutual Fortune will save them time and money because they will deliver those goods directly and immediately to the locators," Salonga told The STAR.

Wan Hai, which successfully made its maiden port call in Subic Bay recently, will provide investors and locators inside the freeport the opportunity to transport their containerized cargos direct from manufacturing plants to the ships.

SBMA senior deputy administrator for Operations Gen. Jose Calimlim noted that instead of shipping the containerized cargos from other countries to Manila ports and then haul them by land to Subic, the investors could now ship them directly to Subic through Wan Hai.

SBMA administrator Armand Arreza further said HL Speedy is being tapped by Wan Hai to be its authorized representative to transport both empty and laden containers from the Port Area to Subic Freeport investors’ factory facilities, or vise versa.

"What businessmen are after is the speed at which their goods reach their destinations. The shortest time is the best time for these investors," Arreza told The STAR.

Arreza said HL Speedy will occupy a property in the Subic Gateway Area and $135,000 in investment.

Meanwhile, Mutual Fortune will invest $9,482 in Subic, he added.

Arreza also said that business groups in the forwarding and freight services are now preparing for the influx of local and foreign ships after the completion of the Subic Bay Port Development project, as well as the construction of the Hanjin shipbuilding facility in the Redondo Peninsula.

He said SBMA is confident that the Subic freeport will become a major player in the Asian economy in the near future as more investors have already planned to infuse more than $2 billion in committed investments in Subic.