DOCK TO THE FUTURE: New port terminal aims to modernize the shipping industry

There was a time the port area was as decadent as the wild old West. Stevedores were shady toughies. Bureaucrats lurked with their red tape. The whole process of loading and unloading shipment had the atmosphere of Sisyphus carrying a rock uphill – the same drudgery and absurdity, perhaps, but thrice as long. Shady was the whole enterprise’s reputation.

"We want this to be a thing of the past," says Michael Romero, CEO of Harbour Centre, a private commercial seaport that aims to be at par with the most modern port terminals in the world.

"When I took over Harbour Centre a year ago, it was bare and mismanaged. Our first order of business was to change the old culture of the port – ‘yung pa-siga-siga, ‘yung pagka-kurakot ng mga stevedores. We reoriented and professionalized the ranks, slowly but surely. And we also put up modern facilities, just like those in Hong Kong and Singapore," he adds.

Romero has a lot of things to be optimistic about. First, the tale of the Harbour Centre tape: The new port terminal has berthing walls developed using advanced technologies in reclamation and dredging, and are supported by 27-meter sheet piles from Luxembourg; Jan de Nul, a dredging and reclamation expert from Belgium, handled the project.

"We dredged deeper," Romero explains. "In other piers, the ships can’t dock so they just anchor a couple of meters away," he explains. "Barges go to them, pick up their cargo and return to the harbor – which is practically double-handling. Here, they can dock beside the terminal itself, kasi 10 meters ang depth namin."

There is also the matter of design. Adjacent to the old pier, the new port terminal’s layout is simple: its north and south harbors have wide working aprons (30 meters by 865 lineal meters for the north, and 20 meters by 250 lineal meters for the south), which can accommodate 12 vessels at any given time. A 15-hectare backup area allows for faster and more efficient cargo-handling services. The port terminal is capable of handling up to three million tons of break-bulk cargos and up to 400,000 TEUs (or twenty-foot equivalent units) of domestic containers.

"Thus, ships have access to a bigger working apron, ‘yung ginagalawan ng kargamento. Simple lang ang design namin, unlike the old port which is laid out like a finger."

Now, before you go conjuring erotic thoughts (or imagining Traci Lords/John Holmes flicks), bear in mind that the "finger" refers to the design of the old pier, which was constructed during the ‘50s.

"The problem with the finger model is that when ships dock – and we have bigger vessels and cargos these days – the pier gets clogged very quickly," Romero shares. "In our operations, we don’t adopt anything that is complicated. We get the cargo from the ship and then transfer the items to the trucks. In business, the key is to simplify things."

The Harbour Centre also boasts modern equipment, which include an 80-ton heavy-life capacity Gottwald Harbour Mobile Crane, as well as 15-, 12-, 10-, 8-, 5- and 3-ton forklifts.

"We have cut down docking and unloading process by as much as 50 percent, giving clients 30 percent savings right away – and not just on discounts, but mainly on the efficiency of our operations."

Romero adds that usually each shipment has a pilferage rate of about one percent. "Here, we prevent that from happening. I also tell our employees to return bribes. We offer straightforward rates and try to eliminate undesirable red tape and corruption."

A shipper’s utopia? A pipe dream in a floating world? The Harbour Centre CEO is determined to see his vision of a modern port through. "I am up for the challenge. We want to contribute to the Philippine economy by making shipping more efficient. For example, when we get a shipment of 11,000 metric tons of steel from India, we will finish it in two shifts, approximately 18 hours. Unlike in others, which take around five days pag-discharge pa lang."

He is also shooting to meet, and eventually exceed, international standards.

"I want to bring the industry to a certain level," he muses. "The system of the old port has been in place for 50 years. What we want to do is find ways to make things better, faster. But the port is just one aspect. To complete the cycle, you have trucking and warehousing – areas with much improvement to be desired. That should be our next step," reveals Romero.

If You Build It, They Will Come

Romero admits that he has learned a lot from his father, construction tycoon Regis Romero.

"My father always told me, ‘If you look at the market and see all of them doing the same thing, do something different. Create what’s not in the market. So, that’s what I’ve always focused on – creating products with value," he shares.

Being a part of the construction business has taught him the importance of preparation. "It’s not enough just to tell clients, ‘Yes, we can build that,’ and then find out later on you can’t undertake the project. Possessing the right materials is also a key factor."

Before handling the Harbour Centre, Romero did extensive research in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. Research is a very important element in his business philosophy since he was once part of the academe (he taught business courses in Ateneo and La Salle).

"But at the same time, I’m also a practical person since I’m an entrepreneur. I try to combine theory and practice, not just concentrating on one aspect. For this project, we did a lot of feasibility studies, puro trial and error pa rin. Now, I think we have a model that works," he enthuses.

Romero, who’s in his early 30s, confesses there is an advantage in being a young entrepreneur engaged in an old industry like shipping. "We young businessmen have new ideas. We are more risk-takers. The world is changing, and the old models may or may not be the best for it, so the key is to be able to adapt one’s business to a changing reality. And when people tell you ‘It’s impossible’ or ‘It can’t be done’ – the only thing to do is to take the first step."

And the rest has a way of docking into place.