Despite the intervention of President Bharrat Jagdeo and the partial removal of the obstacles to the normalization of the country’s scrap metal trade, the fate of the industry still appears to be far from decided, according to Con-sultant to the Guyana Scrap Metal Dealers Association (GSMDA) Malik Cave.
Separate meetings between Cave and President Jagdeo and himself and Prime Minister Samuel Hinds last month have cleared the way for the export of most of the 54 containers of ferrous metal that have been lying on wharves for several months. However, In an interview with Stabroek Business earlier this week, Cave said that the shipping of the remaining containers of ferrous metal as well as 25 containers of non ferrous metal appears to have hit several hurdles.
In the case of the remaining containers of ferrous metal Cave said that government is yet to respond to his letter to the President proposing that the high demurrage fees “run up” during the months that the containers remained unshipped be written off against the tax liabilities of the shipping companies. “Without some assurance that the demurrage debts will be settled one way or another the shippers are simply refusing to budge on the remaining containers,” Cave said.
In the case of the unsealed containers of non ferrous metal, government is still to give shipping clearance, Cave added.
And according to Cave the slow pace of the process towards the normalization of the scrap metal trade could precipitate a crisis in the industry. He said that the existing stockpile of scrap – estimated at the equivalent of between 500 and 600 containers – being held by dealers coupled with the continuing export bottlenecks had resulted in a ‘drying up” of activity in the industry. “Since there is already a large quantity of metal on hand dealers have simply stopped buying scrap and there has already been some amount of labour displacement” he said.
Since his meeting with the President on September 5th and his September 18th engagement with the Prime Minister which effectively cleared the way for the shipping of the 54 containers of ferrous metal Cave said that he had written twice to the President but was yet to receive a response. He said that while he had been encouraged by the September exchanges and by the outcomes of those exchanges he was disappointed over the “slowing of the momentum” since those meetings.
Cave said that his communication with President Jagdeo had raised a number of issues relating both to the normalization of scrap exports as well as measures designed to regularize the administration of the scrap metal trade in Guyana. He added that he was particularly keen to secure a response from government on the issue of establishing a state-run monitoring agency, the restoration of licenses to registered scrap dealers and the issuance of licenses to unregistered ones.
According to Cave even as movement on the regularization of the legal scrap metal trade continued to move at a slow pace, there was evidence that illegal trans-border export of scrap persisted. Cave said that he had received reports of the theft of metals at Linden in recent days while GT&T told Stabroek Business some weeks ago that while the vandalizing of its installations had been reduced it had not stopped altogether.
According to Cave the delay in lifting the ban on the export of non-ferrous metal was costing the industry millions of dollars. He said that in recent months the price of non ferrous metals – copper, aluminium, stainless steel, alloy and brass – had dropped on the international market. Cave estimates that a 40-ft container of non-ferrous metal could be worth around $40m.
Meanwhile Cave has hinted that his tenure as a consultant to the GSMDA may not extend beyond this first Annual General Meeting of the Association scheduled to be held later this month. He said that he was yet to make a clear determination as to whether he would seek a formal position within the Association.
