Noel Hylton, chairman of the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ), says shipping industry stakeholders should remain optimistic despite the global challenges facing the industry at this time.

According to Hylton, during the current economic slowdown, the focus must be on marketing the Port of Kingston. As such, he has been vigorously knocking on doors in Europe, Israel and North America and is hoping for a breakthrough in those negotiations.

While Hylton could not give a definite time frame for the effects on the local economy, he said, "It's going to be felt on the port for at least the next two years. We have to come together to work over this two-year period. There are no ifs or buts about it, it is a worldwide crisis." Pressed if there were any short-term opportunities in the current crisis, Hylton said there were none.

Sustainable future

He explained that this was because every port in the region is exposed to the same phenomenon, which is a dramatic reduction in trade caused by the slowdown in the global economy. Hence, short-term opportunities would be the result of ports discounting rates to take business from each other. He stressed that this was not a workable strategy and we have to plan and develop for a more sustainable future.

The PAJ chair was addressing members of the Joint Industrial Council (JIC) at a special meeting at the Shipping Association of Jamaica's (SAJ) offices in Newport West to discuss the departure of APM Terminals as operators of Kingston Container Terminal (KCT).

Purpose of jic

The JIC is a forum which was established in 1952 between the management of the shipping industry and the unions representing port workers. It meets monthly to address concerns of both sides and has been credited with the relative stability and growth of Port Bustamante. Industrial relations experts say that the failure of JICs established in other industries, such as sugar, was partly to blame for the turmoil in those industries and their relative poor performance compared to the shipping sector.

Hylton reported that since August this year, there has been an 11 per cent fall-off in domestic cargo into the island.

Given the current situation, in addition to less cargo coming to the islands ports, Hylton said that the two main terminals, Kingston Wharves Limited (KWL) and KCT may be making less calls on SAJ workers. This effectively means fewer work assignments for such employees.

Saving jobs

In response to this, SAJ General Manager Trevor Riley noted that the SAJ will be intensifying training of its employees to cross-train them and improve their utilisation for non-core tasks, thereby keeping as many of them employed as possible. He said it was vital to ensure that the SAJ workforce remains the best trained and motivated workers, while keeping the appropriate number of them to serve the port when the business returns.

He conceded, however, that the association cannot give any guarantees that the workforce can be held at the current number and that if the business continues to fall, adverse decisions may be forced on the association.

With regard to the privatisation of KCT, Hylton said it will be a transition of management more than the workforce. He noted that the PAJ has been in dialogue with the unions representing the workers to ensure minimum disruption.

The PAJ contract with APM Terminals came to an end about a year ago, but was extended to February next year, after which it will not be renewed.