ICTSI cuts capex budget to $310 M this yr

MANILA, Philippines - Port giant International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) has allocated a lower budget of $310 million for its capital expenditures this year mainly for the development of four new terminals overseas.

ICTSI said the budget allocation for this year would be used for the completion of new container terminals in Mexico, Argen- tina, Honduras, and Democratic Republic of Congo.

The port operator said this year’s budget for capital expenditures does not include its share in the joint venture project with PSA International Pte Ltd. for the development of the container terminal in Buenaventura , Colombia worth $120 million.

Last year, ICTSI spent $477.6 million for its capital expenditures to develop new container terminals in Mexico, Argentina and Colombia ; expand the capacity of its terminal operation in Croatia; and acquire a terminal in Honduras.

The amount spent last year was lower than the full-year capital expenditure budget of $550 million.

ICTSI is a leading port management company involved in the operation and development of marine terminals and port projects world- wide.

Earnings of ICTSI rose 20 percent to $172.4 million last year from $143.2 million in 2012 as revenues from port operations jumped 17 percent to $852.4 million from $729.3 million.

The increase in revenues was mainly due to volume growth, higher storage revenues and ancillary services, tariff rate increases in certain key terminals, full year contribution of the terminal operations in Karachi , Pakistan and Jakarta , Indonesia, and inclusion of the new terminals in Manzanillo, Mexico and Puerto Cortes, Honduras.

Excluding the revenues from the newly acquired terminals and the effect of the cessation of the operations in Tartous , Syria, organic revenue growth was at seven percent.

ICTSI’s seven key terminal operations in Manila, Bra- zil, Poland, Madagascar, China, Ecuador and Pakistan accounted for 84 percent of the Group’s consolidated revenues in 2013.

On the other hand, the consolidated volume handled by the port giant grew 12 percent to 6.309 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) last year from 5.628 million TEUs in 2012.