Subic seaport raises target as it breaches 2009 revenue goal

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority’s (SBMA) Seaport Department has raised its collection target this year to P440.84 million—a bigger goal that could easily be attained due to growing maritime trade, SBMA deputy administrator for operations Ferdinand L. Hernandez said.

He said that income in seaport operations by the SBMA rose to P319.73 million in the first seven months of the year, thus exceeding the agency’s revenue target of P316.29 million for the entire 2009.

The amount, which also represented a 15.7-percent growth over the 2008 record, was P3.43 million more than the revenue target for this year and was derived mostly from vessel lay-ups in Subic Bay, as well as wharfage fees on imported products.

According to figures from the SBMA, total seaport income from January to July was composed of P131.23 million in vessel charges, P91.67 million cargo charges, P21.56 million processing fees, P34.62 million in SBMA shares for port-related services, P35.6 million leases and rentals, and P5 million in other charges.

The SBMA also said that the record collection was boosted in particular by a total of P68.3 million in fees paid by laid-up vessels, P39.8 million in wharfage fees on grains, wheat, fertilizer and rice, and P21.5 million in wharfage fees on imported petroleum products.

The P319.73-million collection in the first seven months of 2009 exceeded by 169.7 percent the target for the same period, SBMA data showed.

Hernandez averred that despite the global economic slowdown, the SBMA Seaport Department will breeze through with its collection targets this year.

“For the remaining quarters of 2009, it is a foregone conclusion that the targets will be surpassed,” Hernandez asserted, as the Subic seaport “has consistently recorded banner revenues” in recent months.

“June 2009, which brought in P60.69 million, is worth highlighting because it is the seaport’s highest monthly record thus far—ever since the SBMA was created in 1992,” Hernandez added.

In early July, Hernandez also reported that the SBMA earned some P276.49 million from seaport operations in January to June 2009. This total also slightly surpassed the seaport revenue posted in the entire 2008.

Hernandez said the growth in seaport revenue “only goes to show that the SBMA is on the right track in its effort to market the Port of Subic to more shippers, importers, brokers and cargo forwarders.”

Hernandez also attributed the surge in seaport income in some part to recently completed infrastructures like the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) and the Subic Port Development Project, which increased Subic’s container cargo capacity to 600,000 TEUs.

“These have made the SBMA’s marketing strategies for the port very effective, thus enabling us to greatly enhance Subic’s performance as a logistics hub,” he said.

Meanwhile, SBMA seaport manager Perfecto Pascual said that monthly collections in the first seven months of 2009 had thus far surpassed all previous records since 1993.

He said the actual collections by the SBMA Seaport Department stood at P37.62 million in January, P41.57 million in February, P51.01 million in March, P44.49 million in April, P41.07 million in May, P60.69 million in June, and P43.24 million in July.

Pascual added that Subic’s seaport income had started to surge since his department began making revenue forecasts in 2006.

That year, the SBMA seaport achieved 94.75 percent of its P201.46-million goal, followed by a 93.54-percent completion of the P233.21-million forecast in 2007, and the chart-busting record of 121.05-percent in 2008 when Subic posted actual revenue of P276.24-million against a forecast of P228.2 million, Pascual said. Rey Garcia