Local shippers also report reduced container arrivals

Reduced spending power among Latin American and Caribbean nationals residing in the  diaspora resulted in a 6.8 per cent drop in the shipping of containerized goods into the region in 2009 compared with the previous year, according to a ranking scale released recently by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. (ECLAC)

The ranking scale titled ‘Containerized Throughputs 2009 – Latin America and the Caribbean’ noted that the impact of the reduced inflow of containerized goods was felt particularly in some small Caribbean Community countries. Last year Antigua experienced a 10.48 per cent drop in container arrivals, the equivalent of 2000 less 20-ft containers while St. Lucia experienced a 16.10 drop in container arrivals, the equivalent of 5,000 less 20-ft containers. The maximum amount of cargo shipped in a 20-ft container is estimated at approximately 48,000 pounds.   The ECLAC survey lists no comparative data for Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Guyana, the larger Caribbean territories; however, two local freight forwarders with whom this newspaper spoke said that container arrivals to their own operations last year were down on the previous year. “Usually, we do not provide those sorts of numbers but our own records indicate that fewer containers were received from countries like the United States and Canada, the countries from which most of our containers arrive,” the freight forwarding official told Stabroek Business.

Since the late 1970s there has been a significant increase in the movement of containerized cargo to Guyana, much of which is accounted for by gifts of clothing and items of food shipped to Guyanese at home by relatives residing in North America and Europe. A similar trend has obtained in several Organization of Eastern Caribbean (OECS) countries and the reduced flow of cargo last year is attributed to the global recession and the attendant loss of jobs and reduced earnings by Caribbean people in the diaspora. One freight forwarding official told Stabroek Business that last year’s drop in barrel arrivals marked some degree in the continuity of a trend that has seen more Guyanese opt for “the logistically more convenient” practice of sending money to relatives. “The availability of more imported goods on the local market, sometimes at cheaper prices has meant that it has now become more convenient for Guyanese abroad to send money home to relatives to buy those items,” the shipping official told Stabroek Business.

According to the ECLAC ranking, the port of Santos in Brazil, the largest recipient of containerized cargo in Latin America in the Caribbean  experienced a drop of 15.7 per cent in container arrival activity while arrivals at the Colon and Balboa port complex in Panama also fell last year.