Cebu Port Expansion Moves Ahead

The New Cebu International Container Port has won the approval of the Philippine government, and work on the $200 million container terminal is set to begin in the third quarter of 2017.

The new 500,000 TEU port will be located at Tayud, Consolacion, about five miles away from the existing facility. Tayud has a harbor depth of 45 feet, much deeper than the existing Cebu Port Authority (CPA) terminal. 

“We have to go to other places for expansion as CPA has no more room to expand at the port," said CPA general manager Edmund Tan in a 2014 interview. The existing CPA terminal has a nominal capacity of 250,000 TEU, and it is already handing much more than that each year. 

The regional government has also approved a new bypass road to relieve congestion and accommodate port traffic. 

A competing private proposal to build a much larger facility on the same site will not go ahead. Local officials in Consolacion had signed a joint venture agreement with Mega Harbour Port and Development Inc., a subsidiary of Philippine firm R2 Builders. Consolacion officials note that Mega Harbour has an established track record: it has also signed for a $750 million ports project in Davao, the hometown of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte. 

In announcing the public port project's approval, CPA asserted that it is the only entity permitted to own and operate ports in the province, and it will be taking on the Concepcion project instead.

The private proposal created a small regional controversy: Mega Harbour had planned to work with CCCC Dredging for building the port at Consolacion, and CPA had expressed concern at the involvement of a sanctioned company. The World Bank has barred CCCC Dredging from projects it funds due to the Chinese company's involvement in reef occupation projects in the South China Sea.