CEBU Integrated Arrastre Inc. (CIA) on Thursday, Oct. 15, unveiled its latest investment—a new quay crane meant to address the congestion problem and boost trade in Cebu’s domestic port.
Benjamin Joseph Akol Jr., CIA’s chief executive officer, said the quay crane should raise productivity and redound to economic benefits for Cebu’s supply chain, especially during these challenging times.
In his speech, Akol recalled that it was his father who installed the first quay crane serving all shipping lines some 11 years ago. The installation raised trade productivity which resulted in less waiting time of vessels in the transport of goods from Cebu to Manila and from Visayas to Mindanao.
Akol noted that in the past they used to handle a total volume of 4,000 containers a month, but now the volume of the domestic containers has gone up as players in the domestic shipping lines have increased, prompting the Cebu Port Authority to upgrade its facilities to accommodate more domestic shipping lines at the port.
“Now we can say that we are at par with the port in Manila. I have heard some shipping lines saying that they are having a hard time meeting their weekly goals because other ports in the Philippines are very slow but Cebu is not one of them,” said Akol.
Quay cranes are used to transport containers between ships and the handling yard or vice versa.
Moreover, the installation of the new quay crane came timely as more people want faster delivery of goods at their doorstep. This also helps in the recovery of battered businesses as better cargo handling means faster turnaround time.
The CIA can handle 150,000 containers annually. With the new quay crane this will increase to 300,000 containers every year.
Akol said with their rubber tyred gantry crane they have increased their container marshaling yard capacity from 900 to 2,000 containers.
With the gradual reopening of businesses, Akol is confident that busy port activities will gradually resume, opening up more job opportunities.
At present, the company has 100 workers. (KFD)