By Emmanuel Joseph
Barbados is pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into readying the Port of Bridgetown as a regional transhipment hub, and Guyana is one of the key markets being targeted, the port’s chief has confirmed.
“BPI is currently in discussion with potential partners on the development of transhipment trade,” Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Port Inc. (BPI) David Jean-Marie told Barbados TODAY, disclosing that Guyana tranships just over 300 containers per month.
His announcement comes after Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali declared that steps were being taken to maximise the use of a shipping facility in Bridgetown to move cargo to Guyana. He was at the time commissioning a US$8 million (BDS$16 million) mixing plant of the National Milling Company (NAMILCO) in the Guyanese capital, Georgetown.
President Ali said: “I’m working with Barbados now to say to Barbados… maybe Barbados can give us a special area on their port where we have all the containers there and we have a more efficient transhipment plan from Barbados to Guyana with the two countries at the government level entering into an arrangement.”
Dr Ali said talks between the two Caribbean Community (CARICOM) nations “are very far advanced” and very soon authorities would engage NAMILCO and other freight movers to take advantage of that “guaranteed market”.
The construction of a new berth and expansion of the cargo handling fleet are now underway to support the new Barbados transhipment thrust, Jean-Marie said.
“Construction of Berth Six at a cost of $200 million, inclusive of two new gantry cranes already on order, is scheduled to be completed by August 2024,” he said.
The cargo handling equipment fleet will see the addition of rubber-tyred gantry cranes (RTGs) to allow for higher stacking of containers, according to Jean-Marie. He added that the port would become a hybrid straddle carrier and RTG yard operating system to increase the capacity to handle the increased freight volumes.
By the end of the financial year last March, the Port of Bridgetown registered its highest volumes of containers handled at 119 733 20-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs), a 17 per cent increase over the previous year.
“Berth Six is coming closely on the completion of a new dedicated roll-on/roll-off (Ro/Ro) berth intended to support ferry services,” Jean-Marie stated.
The RoRo Berth, built as part of the Shallow Draught Marina Expansion Project, went into operation on October 3.
This facility is currently being used by the inter-island feeder vessels, with weekly shipments of fruit and vegetables, as well as the vessels bringing natural gas to Barbados, the port administrator said.
“The expansion is being executed with environmental impact considerations at the forefront and includes two wave attenuation structures that are designed to improve wave conditions within the marina during extreme weather events,” he added.
Guyana’s President Ali said he hopes that NAMILCO could play a key role in the processing of Guyana’s increasing soya and corn production to manufacture animal feed for export to the Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic. A subsidiary of the American agribusiness and transport multinational Seaboard Corporation, NAMILCO exports flour and specialty flour products to the Caribbean, Suriname, North America and Northern Brazil.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
