Harbor Star seals deal with grains terminal

HARBOR STAR Shipping Services, Inc. said it inked a deal to provide harbor assist services to vessels calling at a grains terminal in Bataan.

The listed tugboat and cargo vessel firm said in a disclosure to the stock exchange on Tuesday it signed a twoyear service agreement with Mariveles Grains Corp. (MGC), which took effect last Monday, April 1.

“Under the Service Agreement, (Harbor Star) will exclusively provide harbor assist services to all vessels calling MGC’s terminal,” it said.

MGC is the operator of the Mariveles Grains Terminal in Mariveles, Bataan with services such as handling, storage and distribution of imported bulk grains. Harbor Star said the terminal “was previously being serviced by (its) competitors.”

Mariveles Grains Terminal was a unit of listed Asian Terminals, Inc. under its non-port segment, but was taken off of its portfolio following the sale of MGC to Philippine Grain International Corp. in August 2010.

Harbor Star said the service agreement with MGC is part of its plan to draw recurring revenues for the company from exclusive deals.

“This is in line with (Harbor Star’s) direction to continually enter into exclusive service contracts, rather than spot contracts, with customers to ensure recurring revenue,” it said.

Earlier, the listed firm also signed exclusive contracts with GNPower Kauswagan Ltd. Co. and Chevron Philippines, Inc. It will provide the docking, undocking and other emergency requirements of vessels used for GNPower’s terminal in Lanao del Norte until December 2019. For Chevron, Harbor Star signed a threeyear contract in February to deliver tug assist and mooring services.

In the nine months to September, Harbor Star saw its attributable net income ending flat at P66.26 million from P65.73 million in 2017. —