International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), the largest Philippine port operator, plans to spend $600-million expanding facilities in Latin America as economic growth spurs trade.

The company will make the investments in Argentina, Mexico and Colombia during the next two years, Chairman Enrique Razon told reporters today after a shareholders meeting in Manila. The terminal operator previously announced plans to spend $123-million upgrading facilities in Manila, Brazil, Ecuador and Madagascar this year.

ICTSI has boosted operations in Latin America as rising commodity prices and rebounding economies spur consumer spending. Economic growth in the region will likely outpace expansion in the Euro area, Japan and the US through 2012, according to the World Bank.

“The region needs new ports because the existing facilities are congested,” said Haj Narvaez, a Manila-based Macquarie Group Ltd. analyst. “Yields are also attractive.”

ICTSI may have the capacity to handle as many as 1.5 million 20-foot containers in Mexico, Argentina and Colombia within two years, said Narvaez, who rates the Manila-based company “outperform.”

The terminal operator has total capacity of 6.8 million boxes at present, he said.

The company expects volumes across its operations to continue growing this year, with all of its terminal performing “well,” Razon said.

Stockholders also approved a new class of shares at the meeting. The terminal operator fell 1.1 percent to close at 32.85 pesos in Manila.

ICTSI’s Americas operations, including a terminal in Brazil and another in Ecuador, handled 248,136 containers in the second quarter. That’s more than a third of the volume moved at the company’s 10 Asian terminals, which are spread across the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, China and Brunei.

The company won a 34-year concession to build a container terminal in Mexico’s Port of Manzanillo last year. It agreed to build a facility in Port of Buenaventura in Colombia in 2007 and one in Argentina’s Port of La Plata in 2008. (Bloomberg)