. Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing (PMPMI) has increased the total land area it will lease from the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) as the company puts up its regional tobacco leaf warehouse at the freeport zone.

Armand Arreza, SBMA administrator, said he and Christopher Nelson, PMPMI managing director, last week signed a 50-year lease agreement through which the company will lease an additional 49,279 square metres of land at the freeport. SBMA said the additional property will be the site of the second phase of PMPMI’s regional tobacco leaf warehouse. The company currently operates a 9,600-square-metre refurbished warehouse in Subic, which it has been leasing since beginning operations there in 2007. SBMA said the new warehouse will have a capacity of about 24,000 metric tonnes of tobacco leaves. The current warehouse only holds 6,100 metric tonnes of tobacco. “The new warehouse will boast features like humidity control, fire suppression equipment and air conditioning, to handle the imported tobacco leaves from foreign suppliers, which will then be shipped to and processed in cigarette manufacturing facilities in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia,” Nelson said. (sra)