New container port up for approval, Korea aid
If approved by the government this year, an international container port project in Consolacion would be implemented middle of next year and completed in 2019.
Transportation Undersecretary Julianito Bucayan Jr. said a feasibility study conducted by the South Korean government on the proposed project has been completed and will be endorsed to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) for approval.
He was hopeful that Neda would approve the project and a bidding would be conducted before the year ends.
Bucayan said the government will seek a $200-million loan, roughly P9.1 billion, from the Korea Export Import Bank for the project.
“If Cebu has to grow, it needs a place where you can bring the goods. This means providing a dedicated facility for international goods,” he said after the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on Monday for the use of a 1.1-hectare additional container yard by the Bureau of Customs.
Cebu Port Authority (CPA) general manager Edmund C. Tan said the proposed container port will initially have an area of 25 hectares, which can accommodate up to 350,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units).
“It could be expanded later on if cargo increases,” Tan said.
The container port at the Cebu International Port (CIP) is congested because of overstaying cargoes. An average of 2,000 containers arrive at CIP every week.
CIP manager Rene Bacon earlier told Cebu Daily News that 656 twenty-foot and 75 forty-foot container vans that the BOC seized have been overstaying at the CIP.
To decongest the CIP, a 1.1-hectare property beside the container yard of Sulpicio Lines will serve as additional container yard for BOC. The property is being leased by the CPA from the Oriental Port and Allied Services Corp. (Opascor).
A MOA was signed on Monday by DOTC, Cebu Port, Customs bureau and Opascor.
“This is to provide space for the BOC. It may not be that big but it has a big impact,” Bucayan said.
Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Ma. Teresa B. Chan welcomed the additional space and asked the CPA to declare the international port free of congestion to compel shipping lines to lift the port fee charges.
“We are looking forward to this and we are very happy that there will be extra space for the container vans,” Chan said.
Present during the MOA signing were Bucayan, Tan, BOC Commissioner Alberto Lina, Cebu District Collector Arnulfo Marcos, and Opascor vice chairman Dennis Mendoza.
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