The International Container Terminal Services Inc. on Thursday bared a business outlook remaining strong amid inflationary headwinds and the war in Ukraine, which has caused global economic instability.
“The company’s business remains strong and we continue to be very prudent in our actions and watching very closely our costs and managing each and every terminal. But we believe that these problems will continue for the foreseeable future although the company will overcome them eventually,” Enrique K. Razon Jr., chairman and president, said at the company’s virtual annual stockholders’ meeting. According to him, 2022 was a “relatively quiet year” when he acquired new terminals but that he “expect that to change in the near future.”
“On the other hand, we undertook expansion projects at the MICT [Manila International Container Terminal], VICT [Victoria International Container Terminal] in Australia and Contecon Manzanillo in Mexico likewise for Matadi Gateway Terminal (MGT) in DR Congo and OMT in Nigeria,” he noted.
“In July, we acquiredmajority ownership of a multi-purpose terminal in Lamongan Regency, East Java, Indonesia. The East Java Multipurpose Terminal is our 11th terminal in Asia Pacific,” Razon added. He estimated the group’s capital expenditure this year at about $400 million, higher than last year’s $386.45 million.
“This will be used for ongoing expansion in VICT, Contecon Manzanillo, MICT, and MGT and is primarily a spill over from last year,” he said.
“It will also go into the second tranche of concession extension related expenditures in Madagascar, yard expansion at OMT and berth expansion at Rio Brasil Terminal,” Razon added.
ICTSI earlier booked a net income of $618.46 million last year, up 44 percent from $428.57 million in 2021.
The company’s revenue from port operations went up by 20 percent to $2.24 billon last year from $1.87 billion in 2021.
ICTSI handled consolidated volume of 12,216,190 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2022, nine percent more than the 11,163,473 TEUs handled in the same period in 2021.
