Opascor to spend P600M on new cargo equipment

THE Oriental Port and Allied Services Corp. (Opascor), the exclusive cargo handling service provider at the Cebu International Port (CIP), will spend P600 million to buy equipment from China that will arrive on Nov. 5.

Opascor president and general manager Tomas Riveral said they bought new quay cranes and yard cranes because they want to “revolutionize the cargo handling industry in Cebu and set a tone in the Visayas and Mindanao.”

The P600 million will be financed by Banco de Oro (BDO). The cost covers shipping, insurance and installation.

Riveral, Opascor vice chairman Dennis Mendoza and Jonathan Fernandez went to China three times to observe the manufacturing plant, negotiate the price and sign the contract to purchase what they described as “the most modern equipment for cargo
handling, the first brand new units acquired outside Manila.”

The new acquisitions are one quay crane for loading containerized cargo from the vessel to the port and from the port to the vessel, and two yard cranes or rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) cranes that will move containerized cargos from trucks to the yard and from the yard to trucks.

The new equipment will be in addition to the 11 existing RTGs that have been operating at the CIP for several years already.

Riveral said the quay cranes main feature includes a self-diagnostic system wherein its computer will detect any trouble that will break out. The net weight of a crane
that used to be 31 tons of safe working load is now 41 tons.

Opascor has an existing contract with Cebu Port Authority (CPA) as exclusive cargo handling service provider at CIP up to 2022. Bulk of CPA’s annual income comes from Opascor’s operations.

Riveral said Opascor is moving to modernize its cargo handling operations.

Mendoza said the modernization effort of the company will make Cebu globally-competitive in terms of cargo-handling operations.