9th Cokaliong ship taps Vis-Mindanao market

Despite the entry of  more budget  airlines and cheap air fare,  a local shipping firm remains optimistic about growth in the shipping  industry especially with Saturday’s  launching of its  ninth vessel,  MV Filipinas.

Chester Cokaliong, founder and chief executive officer of Cokaliong Shipping Lines Inc., said  the ship was an investment of  P180 million and created 50 additional jobs.

The roll-on-roll-off vessel, which was bought in Japan, would serve a large  untapped market for the shipping industry in the Visayas and Mindanao, said Cokaliong, who is also this year’s Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Entrepreneur of the Year awardee.

The  3,084-ton vessel with a cruising speed of  16 knots  can carry  850 passengers.

It will add two more trip frequencies in Cokaliong’s   Cebu-Osamiz-Iligan route, which is being served by MV Filipinas Ozamiz.   Cokaliong   has the most number of voyages  to these areas.

At present MV Filipinas Ozamiz travels to  Cebu-Ozamiz-Iligan  every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The new vessel adds two more schedules on Friday and Sunday.

Cokaliong said the firm focused on this route  because of its large volume of  passengers and cargo traffic.

“Even with  budget airlines, travel by sea is  still the cheapest and most convenient way of traveling  in the country because  airlines  have limitations when it comes to weight of cargo and the number of passengers,” Cokaliong said.

“This is where  shipping companies come in because we have bigger capacities than airplanes.”

He said the shipping firm still had full bookings for their other vessels  on different routes.

In terms of   revenue, an equal contribution is made by  passengers ticket sales and cargo, he said.

“This vessel arrived here last April 27 and we have been working on it since then. This is our biggest vessel and  perhaps the first  in Cebu with three auxillary engines. It also has four main engines. A standard vessel would just have  two each, two auxiliary and two main engines but we have more,” he said.

In 2007, Cokaliong invested P220 million to acquire  MV Filipinas Cebu.

Two years after, the firm bought another vessel MV Filipinas Ozamiz for  P250 million.

Cokaliong said these  continued investments would show the firm’s confidence in the shipping industry, which Cokaliong described as the backbone of the  Philippine economy because it provides linkages that spur more tradingin the islands.

Up ahad, Cokaliong said he plans to field ships to  major ports that are not yet served sach as Nasipit, Butuan and Cagayan de Oro.

“This will not be our last vessel,” Cokaliong said.

Cokaliong Shipping plies routes serving  Cebu, Surigao, Maasin, Dumaguete, Dapitan, Sindangan, Tagbilaran, Iloilo, Larena, Palompon, Iligan, Ozamiz, Baybay and Calbayog.