Harbor Star sees revenues surpassing P1.1-B mark on local, ASEAN expansion

MANILA – Listed integrated maritime service provider Harbor Star Shipping Services Inc. expects its revenues in 2015 to surpass last year’s P1.1 billion, as it enters new markets and diversifies into other businesses.

Company chairman and president Geronimo Bella Jr. expressed optimism about the business, noting that Harbor Star is looking at other ports to augment this year’s revenues and offset the expected impact of last year’s congestion in Manila ports.

“We haven’t gone to Iloilo and Bacolod. Maybe that’s the alternative option,” he said in an interview after the company’s stockholders’ meeting on Wednesday.

Bella said its new harbor propped up business in General Santos, adding that its Cebu operation was slowly picking up.

Overseas, the company was upbeat in penetrating new markets in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Bella said.

“The impending ASEAN Economic Integration is timely as we continue to develop business partnerships in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam,” he said.

Bella said the company was diversifying into new businesses, particularly coal trading.

“We will probably be doing commercial vessels because of the increase in traffic in trade… We are also looking at probably engaging in the coal trading because of the power plants. (With the) increasing number of people, the energy requirement is also increasing,” he said.

Harbor Star’s line of services includes harbor assistance, lighterage, towage, ship salvage, ship management, diving and underwater works and other specialized services.

In 2014, the company posted a 22.8-percent surge in revenues to P1.1 billion from the previous year’s P898 million mainly on the growth of its lighterage and underwater marine works services.