SBMA seen to post record income

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT , Philippines  – The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) seaport racked up bigger monthly earnings this year and is expected to post a record income at the end of the year.

SBMA officials said that Subic seaport earnings in the last 11 months already stood at P449.15 million, which is about 78 percent more than last year’s P252.63 million profit.

“This not only breached our seaport revenue target for the current year, but has also surpassed year-on-year figures since 1992 when the Subic Bay Freeport was created,” said SBMA administrator and chief executive Armand Arreza.

“This is really unprecedented,” he added. “This is one record that would be hard to beat even in the next few years.”

Latest available data show that the surge in seaport income started in January this year when it earned P37.6 million, or 167 percent more than the P14.07-million earnings in January 2008.

The positive growth continued all through the following months, with comparative figures rising 165 percent in February, 209 percent in March, 101 percent in April, and 168 percent in June.

As of November, this year’s seaport income already exceeded the January-November 2008 income by P196.5 million, said Arreza.

The seaport income is derived from vessel and cargo charges, leases and rentals, processing fees, SBMA shares from joint ventures, and other billings for port users.

Arreza also pointed out that Subic seaport’s revenue generation consistently began posting increases in the last four years, rising from P181.09 million in 2005, to P190.88 million in 2006, P221.39 million in 2007, and P276.24 million in 2008.

The rebound began, Arreza noted, after seaport income dipped in 2005 by 20.39 percent, compared to the P227.46 million recorded in 2004.

“Since then, seaport operations picked up, especially this year when the global recession turned out to be an opportunity for the Subic port,” Arreza told The STAR. “In the first six months of 2009 alone, seaport revenue already exceeded the previous year’s 12-month performance,” he added.

Arreza said the rise in seaport income could be attributed to the operation of Subic’s New Container Terminal 1 (NCT-1) by the Subic Bay International Terminal Corp. (SBITC), as well as income from vessel lay-ups and wharfage fees for petroleum products, fertilizer, and grains like soya and wheat.

He also said the positive performance stemmed from SBMA efforts to aggressively market the Subic port and attract more shippers, importers, brokers and forwarders to Subic.

Under the SBMA’s marketing program, the agency’s seaport department posted a whopping revenue of P60.7 million in June, the highest in the 11-month period, as well as a P51-million collection in March.

Arreza likewise noted that the SBMA Seaport Department’s 11-month revenue has exceeded its 12-month revenue forecast of P316.3 million by P133 million or 52 percent.

Arreza added that since the seaport’s average monthly income now stood at P40.8 million, it would be safe to assume that the 2009 revenue total for the Subic seaport would reach P490 million.

The estimated yearend earnings would exceed the revenue forecast of P316.3 million by about 55 percent.