Transport and Works Minister, Robert Pickersgill (right) and Noel Hylton, president of the Port Authority of Jamaica, at a press conference at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel yesterday
-Rudolph Brown photoTHE GOVERNMENT is considering increasing the costs incurred by shipping lines to store empty containers at the ports in an effort to make more space available for incoming cargo.
But representatives of at least two shipping lines have said this would be unwise.
Speaking at a press conference at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel yesterday morning, Robert Pickersgill, the minister of transport and works, said next year, the government would be reviewing the current amounts paid for storage by shipping lines, to create more space at the ports. He said empty containers had contributed to the current lack of adequate space at the port.
But contacted yesterday, Fritz Pinnock, managing director of Lannaman and Morris Shipping Company, said increasing the costs for storing empty containers at the port would result in business being transferred to other countries such as the Bahamas and Panama.
"If we do that, we do it to our own detriment," he said, explaining that the number of empty containers had been generated because of an "imbalance" in trade where the number of imports was grossly inconsistent with that of exports. And according to Mr. Pinnock, it was very costly to ship empty containers overseas.
Evroy Johnson, accounts and administrative manager at the Zim Israel Navigation Company in Kingston, said the problem of a backlog at the port was the result of government's inadequate response to the growth in the trans-shipment industry.
D.M.
