THE government is in talks with Japan to convince some Japanese companies based in the Southern Tagalog area to divert some of their cargoes to Batangas Port Phase II, a terminal that has been idle for about two years now.

Batangas Port manager Alex Cruz said that they have met with members of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) last week and with representatives of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Philippines Inc.  to show them the facilities, which could accommodate about 350,000 twenty-foot equivalent units per year.

The said port area still has hectares of unused lots, which could be used by the shippers to consolidate their cargoes.

Jica gave a loan of at least P5.5 billion to develop the second phase of Batangas Port, which was established as an alternative port to Manila.

“We suggested to the [Jica representatives] if they can also help us with the cargo volume since the facility has used mainly Japan funds. They agreed with us,” Cruz said.

At the moment, Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI) has the temporary permit to operate the said facility, but Cruz said that the company cannot fully market Batangas Port Phase II to its existing clients as it has no assurance that they will win the long-term contract.

Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), which owns the port, is trying to privatize the facility in hopes that the operator would do its best to divert some of the cargoes there and possibly decongest Manila ports.

ATI along with International Container Terminal Services Inc. are both bidding for the 25-year contract to operate the facility.

For now, those locators in provinces such as Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon are using Manila for the import and export of shipments as most of their main shipping offices are located in Metro Manila.

“It’s not easy to convince the businessmen to use our facilities because it will be added cost to them,” Cruz said, adding that he already offered a discounted price for the use of an office space inside PPA-Batangas building, but shippers still shun the idea of having its satellite office in Batangas.

Batangas Port is targeting some 30 to 40 percent of the current volume of the locators along the Calabarzon area.

PPA expects a 5-percent increase in cargo volume by 2010 for Batangas Port Phase I, which was also funded by Japanese aid agencies. 

The agency expects the increased volume of business from companies such as Fortune Cement, Swire and Fertiphil.

ATI operates Phase I of the port, which includes all of its facilities and the passenger terminal building.

“Volume from Fortune Cement is expected to be 315,000 metric tons by next year from 300,000 metric tons this year, while fertilizers are forecasted to be at 36,000 metric tons,” Cruz said.

“Such volume will be boosted by another car company which already expressed intention to drop its car shipments at the port hopefully as early as towards the end of this year,” he added.

At least three car manufacturers like Toyota Motors, Hyundai and General Motors are shipping their completely built-up units at the port with an average of 500 units per vessel per week or about 2,000 units a month for each of the carmakers.