Bauan Terminal will be the largest privately-funded marine terminal in the country’s history. Work on the project will start in 2025, with the first phase set for completion by the end of 2027.
Once finished, it will have 900 meters of quay and at least eight ship-to-shore gantry cranes and an estimated capacity of over two million twenty foot equivalent units per year.
This will make it the second-largest container facility after the Manila International Container Terminal, which the global cargo port operator won and developed in the late 1980s.
Christian R. Gonzalez, ICTSI executive vice president, told InsiderPH the project will establish Bauan as a gateway connecting the world to the provinces of Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal and Quezon.
This is aligned with the Marcos administration’s push to accelerate investments, especially in areas outside Metro Manila.
In terms of operations, this project will allow ICTSI to balance capacity needs between Manila and the rest of Southern Luzon.
“We will then have the ability at very short notice to allocate capital to the right ports depending on where growth in Southern Luzon accelerates the quickest or where we see the greatest potential for growth,” he said.
The new Bauan international container terminal is located 120 kilometers south of Metro Manila and 9 km west of Batangas City.
It will compete more directly with the Batangas Port operations of Asian Terminals, which is partly owned by Dubai-based industry giant DP World.
“It will not only serve as competition to Batangas but also to Manila,” Gonzalez said, adding that ICTSI actively competes with DP World in several global markets such as Australia, Congo and Ecuador.
“Our view is that Manila and Batangas are pretty much the same market. Whatever we do in manila impacts the competitive environment in Batangas. The same happens in the other direction,” Gonzalez said.
“We also need to look at long term volume forecasts and this is absolutely necessary capacity if we want to ensure the economy can be efficiently served in the coming decades,” he said.
Another major driver is the renewable energy shift taking place in Batangas. For example, ICTSI’s investment will support the importation of offshore wind components coming into the Philippines over the coming years.
According to the Department of Energy, indicative offshore wind projects being proposed in the area include the 1,024 Megawatt project of the Ayala Groups’ Giga Ace 7 and the 1,500-MW Mariveles offshore wind farm of Domhain Earth Corp.
Yet another enabler in Batangas is completion of the Bauan-San Pascual-Batangas-STAR tollway diversion road.
More road connections are being proposed, bolstering the prospects of the site, which Gonzalez called game changers.
ICTSI is expanding the existing Bauan Port, which currently serves as a roll-on/roll-off cargo terminal that primarily serves as an automotive shipping hub used by Japanese car makers Honda and Mitsubishi.
Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.
