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New Cebu port takes off

By: Mary Rose Sagarino, Morexette Marie B. Erram - CDN Digital | February 05,2025 - 10:45 AM

New Cebu port

On this site in Barangay Tayud, Consolacion town in northern Cebu will soon rise the New Cebu International Container Port (NCICP). CDN Digital photo | Morexette Marie B. Erram

CEBU CITY, Philippines – After spending years in the pipeline, the new container port in Cebu has finally began construction.

Civil works for the New Cebu International Container Port (NCICP) on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, officially started with a ceremonial groundbreaking in Brgy. Tayud, Consolacion town in northern Cebu.

It was attended by Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista, Korean Ambassador to the Philippines Lee Sang-Hwa, Presidential Assistant to the Visayas Terrence Calatrava, Consolacion Mayor Teresa Alegado and Vice Mayor Joannes Alegado, and Francisco Comendador III, general manager of the Cebu Port Authority (CPA).

READ: Construction to finally start for much-delayed Consolacion port

Also present were representatives from the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM) and the Korean contractor HJ Shipbuilding and Construction Ltd. 

The P16.9-billion project is in partnership with the Philippine and Korean governments, and World Bank.

Korea’s Kexim will be financing around P10 billion while the rest will be shouldered by the national government. 

According to Bautista, the project signals “a new era” of the maritime industry in Cebu, adding that it will not only benefit the island’s base port but also the economic landscape here.

Ambassador Sang-Hwa shared the same sentiment, and hoped it would strengthen ties between the countries further.

Meanwhile, Mayor Alegado said the project served as testament of Cebu’s role as a commerce hub in the Visayas and Mindanao regions. 

The NCICP is intended to decongest the container terminal and increase operational capacity at the Cebu base port, the country’s busiest port and the main gateway to Central Visayas and nearby regions.

New Cebu port completion 2028

First introduced in the early 2000s, like most big-ticket infrastructure projects in the country, it suffered significant delays.

Last November 2024, the Philippine government gave the go-signal to award the contract to the Korean shipbuilding company to start construction.

The NCICP is expected to be completed by 2028, Bautista said. 

The new Cebu port will be located on a 25-hectare area on a reclaimed portion of Consolacion.

The new Cebu port will have a 500-meter berth length and water depth of (-12) meters, is expected to finish between 2027 and 2028.

Upon completion, it has the capacity to accommodate two 2,000 twenty-foot equivalent (TEU) vessels.

The port will also have operating facilities and structures for containers such as a freight station and inspection shed, as well as an access road and bridge. 

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TAGS: Cebu, maritime, transportation
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