Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp. is confident of obtaining an original proponent status from state-run Philippine Ports Authority for its offer to develop, operate and maintain the Davao Sasa Port.
“We have done review with PPA late last year. We are looking to get OPS anytime soon if our offer will meet the PPA requirement,” CLC president and chief executive Chryss Alfonsos Damuy said.
Chelsea Logistics earlier submitted an unsolicited offer to PPA to develop, operate and maintain the Davao Sasa Port for P16 billion.
The company plans to spend P16 billion for the Davao Sasa Port in phases.
“The phase one is rehabilitation of the existing port and the phase 2 is increasing the capacity, but it depends on the traffic,” Damuy said, adding the company proposed a 25-year concession period.
The National Economic and Development Authority approved the modernization of Davao Sasa Port for P19 billion under the Aquino administration’s public private partnership scheme.
The Transportation Department had prequalified Asian Terminals Inc., International Container Terminal Services Inc., Bollore Africa Logistics, Singapore-based Portek International Pte. Ltd. and San Miguel Corp. for the Davao Sasa Port project.
But the Duterte administration decided to pursue the project through unsolicited proposal instead of PPP scheme.
Sasa Port is actually designed for break bulk cargo vessels, which is vital to the economy of Davao City.
About 500,000 metric tons of steel, wheat, fertilizer, motor vehicles, heavy equipment and other cargo not suitable for containers went through Sasa Port in 2014, according to PPA data.
Davao Integrated Port and Stevedoring Services Corp., an operator at the Sasa port, said the current capacity of Sasa stood at 700,000 twenty-foot equivalent units.
The yearly volume handled by DIPSSCOR, a unit of ICTSI, was just 300,000 TEUs.
