More income expected with Cebu port cranes

The Cebu Ports Authority (CPA) is expecting an increase in revenue with the coming online of three new gantry cranes at the Cebu International Port (CIP).

“We hope that there would be an increase in the revenue as more vessels will be coming in because we are now more capable of handling cargoes,”said lawyer Tomas Riveral, president and general manager of Oriental Port and Allied Services Corporation (Opascor).

Opascor is a Filipino cargo handling company owned by workers andh provides port services to vessels calling at the CIP as well as vessels carrying foreign and local cargoes in the Cebu port.

Quay cranes

With the new equipment, Opascor can now serve two container vessels at any given time with two Quay cranes assigned per vessel.

The new cranes can handle cargoes up to 41.9 tons.

“This is an improvement of the existing capacity of the cranes we had which had a capacity of only 31 tons. This new equipment could have can also move 30-35 times per hour,”Riveral said.

He said the new cranes were brought from Dalian, China and were the first brand new equipment of its kind outside the port of Manila.

He said the cranes cost several millions of dollars.

The new equipment— new gantry quay crane and two rubber tired gantry cranes—arrived in Cebu in November last year. They became operational last month.

“A 20 percent share of the net income of Opascor will be given to the CPA. The share would be put in the general funds which will be used for operations of the port,”said Dennis Villamor, CPA general manager.