Philippines ICTSI sees net income rise 35pc in third quarter

INTERNATIONAL Container Terminal Services (ICTSI), a global container terminal operator with its Manila flagship operations, has announced that consolidated unaudited net income for the third quarter ending September 3 was PHP627 million (US$14.67 million), an increase of 35 per cent year on year.

For the first nine months net income totalled PHP1.67 billion, a year-on-year increase of 27 per cent over PHP1.31 billion in 2006, a statement from the group said. For the first nine months, 2,095,798 TEU was handled compared to 1,448,074 TEU in 2006, up 45 per cent year on year.

The company attributed the boost in quarterly profit to international operations, which accounted for 63 per cent of the third quarter's consolidated net income, as compared to 59 per cent in the third quarter of 2006.

It said in a statement the 10 per cent year-on-year appreciation of the Philippine peso against the US dollar dampened international operations' contribution to earnings in pesos. During the third quarter, the company earned 74 per cent of gross revenues in currencies other than pesos.

"Our four main terminals in Manila, Poland, Brazil and Madagascar all generated outstanding results, which were somewhat masked by one-time start-up and transition costs at our new terminal in Guayaquil, Ecuador and losses at our terminal in Yantai, China as we continue to transition that terminal from domestic to international cargo," said ICTSI chairman Enrique Razon.

Third quarter revenue from the group' port operations grew by 39 per cent to PHP4.21 billion, compared to PHP3.02 billion last year.

The ICTSI group handled 811,049 TEU during the third quarter, 53 per cent higher than the 530,301 TEU handled in the third quarter of 2006. The combined TEU volumes from the company's existing port operations grew 20 per cent over the third quarter last year, accounting for 37 per cent of incremental TEU volume for the period. The addition of new port operations in Ecuador, China and Davao (Philippines), on the other hand, accounted for 63 per cent of the incremental TEU volume for the period, a company statement said.

Domestic operations accounted for 412,945 TEU handled, or 51 per cent of consolidated volumes, for the third quarter. This is a 32 per cent increase over the volumes handled in the 2006 third quarter resulting from a 17 per cent growth in volume handled at the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) and new volume reported by Davao Integrated Port and Stevedoring Services Corp. (DIPSSCOR).

Foreign container volume, on the other hand, grew 82 per cent over the same period last year to 398,104 TEU in the third quarter on high volume growth in Brazil, Poland and Madagascar, combined with new volume handled by the group's new subsidiaries in China and Ecuador. Foreign container volume now accounts for 49 per cent of the total number of containers handled compared with 41 per cent in the third quarter last year.