The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Super Value chief Rupert Roberts is working on a plan that could “cut in half” the $1,300 per container landing fee his business currently faces.

Telling Tribune Business that as of Friday afternoon he had not been informed by Tropical Shipping of its impending 30-48 per cent landing fee increases, Mr Roberts acknowledged any rises would impact “the spiralling cost of living” in the Bahamas.

Indicating that Bahamian merchants and businesses would be unable to absorb such an increase 100 per cent, the Super Value president said both the private sector and consumers were “at their limit” when it came to ever-increasing costs.

“Any increased costs that the merchants get in is going to affect the spiralling cost of living; it’s just going to add to costs,” Mr Roberts told Tribune Business on what Tropical Shipping’s fee increases might mean.

But, on the positive side, the supermarket chain chief said: “We always have to try and keep costs down wherever and whenever we can.

“There are things that can be done to keep costs down. I’ve been looking into it. My understanding is that landing charges go up to $1,300 a container, and I know how to cut that in half; even lower than we’re paying now. I’m working on it. I don’t have all the details, but I’m reasonably sure we can do it.”

Pressed by Tribune Business for specifics on this plan, Mr Roberts said: “Another shipping company called me and told me how we can reduce them lower than present rates. I’m not facing increasing costs; I’m looking forward to decreased costs.”

Still, the Super Value chief said that, with supermarket prices and mark-ups based on costs, any increases in the latter - whether induced by greater freight-related fees or other factors - would drive the former up.

“In this economy, no one can absorb everything; everybody is at their limit,” Mr Roberts said.

He told Tribune Business, though, that as of Friday afternoon Super Value had received no formal notification of the price increases from Tropical Shipping. This was despite several companies forwarding to this newspaper

as early as Wednesday the ‘round robin’ e-mail sent to all its shipping clients, informing them of the price increases to take effect from February 3, 2013.

“I thought they had settled things in the port some time ago,” Mr Roberts told Tribune Business of the landing charges and various other fees. “I didn’t know they would have to increase them. No one was expecting a further increase. I always thought the landing charges were set by the dock, not the shipping company.”

Tropical Shipping and the Arawak Port Development Company (APD), operator of the Nassau Container Port, have each pointed the ‘finger of blame’ for the former’s increase at each other.

The company has blamed the Port and its fees, while APD has hit back by saying Tropical is using it as ‘a scapegoat’ for its decision to try and recover money lost when it heavily discounted rates at the recession’s peak. And APD also suggested the fee rises might have something to do with Tropical’s decision to run its own terminal operations, rather than use the Port’s services.

Tropical Shipping said landing charges for its TEU containers would rise 30 per cent, from $655.98 to $855.98, while charges on its 40-foot containers would rise 43 per cent from $923.23 to $1,323.23.

The company also announced that containers larger than 40 feet would see a landing charge increase of 48 per cent, from $1,109.48 to $1,640.48, while the $64.14 charge per pallet would increase to $84.14, a 31 per cent hike.

But Michael Maura, APD’s chief executive, said: “The current port charges are in-line with port charges in other ports of similar size in the Caribbean. At the time we developed the port tariff rates, we compared our rates for services provided exclusively by the Nassau Container Port with the ports of Barbados, Grand Cayman and St Marten.”

To illustrate the point, Mr Maura compared the TEU (20-foot equipment unit) container landing charges of the Nassau Container Port and those countries. The charge for landing a TEU container at Arawak Cay is $379, compared to $294.17 in St Maarten (with no customs requirement), $377.13 in Grand Cayman and $422.40 in Barbados.