Victoria International Container Terminal Ltd. (VICTL), a joint venture between ICTSI and Australian firm Anglo Ports Pty. Ltd., signed on Friday a contract with the Port of Melbourne Corp. for the design, construction, commissioning, operation, maintenance and financing of the Port of Melbourne’s new international container terminal and empty container park at Webb Dock.
The agreement will deliver a global standard in modern container-terminal design, innovation and operations, and will become the flagship facility in Australia’s premier port.
VICTL is 90-percent owned by the Filipino port operator; the remaining stake is by its Australian partner Anglo Ports.
The contract grants VICTL the rights to design, build and operate the new terminal at Webb Dock and design, build and operate the new, on-port Empty Container Park at Webb Dock East. The lease concession extends to 2040, enabling a competitive platform for the development of ICTSI’s Australian business.
The development of the Australian port is estimated to cost about $407 million for phases 1 and 2 of the project.
Phase 1 of the terminal, to be ready for operation by end-December 2016, will have one berth of 330 meters, fitted with three post-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes, 23.7 hectares of yard and off-dock area with fully automated operations from the gate to the quayside to deliver an estimated capacity of 350,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEU). The terminal will be able to handle vessels with a capacity of up to 8,000 TEU.
Servicing the terminal will be a 10-hectare empty container park with a working capacity of around 200,000 TEU.
The construction of the terminal superstructure and facilities is planned to start in late-2014. Phase 2, planned to be operational by end-December 2017, will deliver an additional two post-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes on a second 330-meter berth.
An additional investment of $101 million is estimated to increase the capacity of the Terminal to 1.4 million TEU.
When fully developed and as required by volume growth, the 35.4-hectare terminal will have a total of six post-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes on 660 meters of berth, and will be able to handle up to 1.4 million TEU annually, with the empty container park’s capacity rising to 280,000 TEU.
“It is a premier project in a country that is considered to be a leader in infrastructure development, and we plan to introduce leading edge and proven technologies that will consistently deliver the highest levels of port performance. We are, likewise, excited by the fact that many innovations are geared toward ensuring seamless interaction between the Port, the City of Melbourne, and its surrounding communities, something we believe to be critical in the container terminals of the future,” ICTSI Head of the Asia-Pacific Region Christian R. Gonzalez said.
The Port of Melbourne is Australia’s largest container and automotive port attracting more than 3,200 commercial ship visits each year. The growth of the Port of Melbourne continues to be a significant economic multiplier for the state of Victoria.
The project marks ICTSI’s entry into Australia, and further extends ICTSI’s portfolio of managed ports to 30 terminals across six continents.
“This new concession represents a major milestone for ICTSI, not only because it is our first concession in Oceania, but also because it establishes us as one of very few truly global operators with facilities on six continents.”
ICTSI is also present in several international markets, namely, Argentina, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Brunei Darussalam, Cayman Islands, China, Colombia, Croatia, Ecuador, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mexico, Pakistan, Panama, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Uruguay and Venezuela.
In the Philippines the port firm operates the Manila International Container Terminal, as well as ports in Subic Bay Freeport Zone (Cubi Point), Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental (Mindanao Container Terminal), Tagum City (Hijo Port) and in Bauan, Batangas (Bauan International Port).
ICTSI saw profits rise by a fifth last year fueled by a robust topline and increased contributions from its new terminal in Pakistan.
Net income attributable to equity holders of the parent grew by 20 percent to $172.4 million in 2013, from $143.2 million the previous year, “mainly due to strong revenue growth and margin improvement in certain key terminals and the contribution from the new terminal in Karachi, Pakistan.”
Gross revenues from port operations surged by 17 percent to $852.4 million for the full year of 2013 versus the $729.3 million reported for the same period the previous year, driven by the 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.
Consolidated cash operating expenses in 2013 rose by a slower 13 percent to $359.5 million from $318.9 million in 2012, on the back of higher volume-related expenses, government-mandated and contracted salary rate increases in certain terminals, higher business development expenses as the company pursued a number of opportunities within the year.
