OPASCOR Chairman Tomas Riveral. | Irene Sino Cruz
CEBU CITY–The P1-billion finger pier at the Cebu International Port (CIP), which was inaugurated Monday, September 30, will increase its berth and yard capacity.
The CIP finger pier project was developed by the Oriental Port and Allied Services Corp. (OPASCOR), in cooperation with the Cebu Port Authority (CPA) under the build-operate-transfer scheme.
OPASCOR Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Tomas Riveral said that the finger pier will help decongest CIP.
It would add two more berthing spaces to the existing two berthing spaces at CIP, Riveral said.
He said the CIP finger pier was funded through a P600-million bank loan, with the balance coming from internally-generated funds.
OPASCOR also invested another P200 million for new equipment.
The finger pier is a 1.25-hectare facility, which will accommodate general cargo vessel carrying rice, steel, cement, salt and other bulk cargoes, according to the OPASCOR statement.
Its 250-meter berth area could accommodate two small or medium vessels or one large vessel.
The finger pier’s 7,500-yard space is capable of stacking an additional 1,050 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers. This would increase CIP’s total storage capacity to more than 10,000 TEUs at any given time.
With the additional yard space, the total annual capacity of the CIP container yard will reach more than 900,000 TEUs.
Meanwhile, the current CIP berthing area will be used to service vessels with containerized cargoes.
As of December 31, 2018, the CIP registered an increase of 10 percent for foreign containers; 45 percent for domestic containers and 10 percent for general cargoes.
Riveral said the additional capacity would enable CIP to handle increases in cargo traffic.
The Ro-Ro ramp constructed at the end of the finger pier is designed for Ro-Ro vessels or barges. This would allow transfer of cargoes directly to Mactan, Liloan and San Fernando.
The facility will start operations by October 7, 2019. / dcb