QCOSTARICA — The collapse of the Pacific port, Puerto Caldera, is no longer just the daily headache of importers and exporters, but for quite some time now it is the consumers who have been paying extra costs due to the expenses involved in the delays and congestion at the terminal.
The delays are mainly due to operational problems and the lack of action by the authorities in charge of supervising the concessionaire, is the opinion of experts in the matter, confirming that importing companies are passing on these logistics and transportation costs to the consumer.
80% of Puerto Caldera’s operations are imports. This is the port where basic necessities such as food products, raw materials – both for the food industry and the pharmaceutical industry -, grains (corn, wheat and barley), fertilizers, construction supplies – such as iron and steel – and vehicles, to name just a few, enter the country.
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The Chamber of Exporters of Costa Rica (Cadexco) and the Chamber of Foreign Trade (Crecex) warned that in January, Puerto Caldera reached over 100% capacity when a 70% occupancy is optimal for an effective port operation.
For example, on Monday, six ships could be seen waiting in the Caldera Bay for one of the port’s docks to be available. Two ships occupied positions 2 and 3 of the port and in position 4 or the bulk dock, a grain crane intensively unloaded the grains directly into the trucks. Meanwhile, outside the port, at least 30 trailers were waiting for cargo, parked along the entire entrance to the port terminal.
The delays at the Caldera port occur due to several factors.
“The first is that the port cannot receive large ships due to the limited depth of its berths, so large ships coming from Asia must transfer at other ports such as Manzanillo (Mexico), or Balboa (Panama), to ships with smaller loads that can transport to Caldera,” said Roxana Sosa, coordinator of the logistics and customs commission of the Costa Rica Chamber of Commerce (CCCR).
This generates delays in the arrival of goods because a ship from Asia can carry between 2,500 and 5,000 containers; but, according to port area information, Caldera can only handle, on average, only 700 containers per week. This means that the rest of the load will be moved to Caldera between four and six weeks.
The second factor is that when a ship arrives at Caldera Bay, it often must wait up to ten days to be able to dock and unload or load.
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Maritime consultant Vernor Murillo explained that all ships pay the Costa Rican Institute of Pacific Ports (Incop) a minimum “anchoring” rate of US$74.43 per hour from the moment they arrive in the bay.
In addition to that, by waiting in the bay, shipping companies incur costs that range between US$22,000 and US$25,000 per day of waiting, according to Murillo, who was director of the board of directors of the National Chamber of Shipowners and Steam Agents (NAVE).
However, Murillo clarified that large container shipping companies have commercial contracts for “docking windows”; that is, a reserved arrival day and time at a dock; and those that are really being mistreated with weeks of waiting are the ships that transport iron or vehicles, which do not have these windows and can only dock when a dock can accommodate them.
The third factor is when the container “hits dock”; that is when it docks and unloads.
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Carlos Montenegro, executive director of the Chamber of Industries of Costa Rica (CICR), mentioned that before, the cargo went directly from the ship to the trucks and to the importer company; but since April 2022, the pre-stacking process began to be implemented to decongest, which was authorized by Incop.
Now the full container that has been unloaded is moved to the “pre-stacking” area, then to the temporary parking lots, and then to the importers or tax warehouses.
“All this logistics adds costs that have to be paid to the port operator, you have to pay the transporters, the temporary parking lots, the shipping companies and all of these are costs that companies have to see how to apply to the product,” Montenegro said.
According to Sosa, the shipping companies give the companies seven days free of container use — without charge — which begins counting from the time the ship docks and after that they charge them for the container rental, fees that can range from US$125 to US$3,000 for container rental, chassis (trailer) rental, and pre-stacker movements.
“All these costs, logically, as a company I have to include them as part of the logistics cost (…). I have to charge all that to the cost of the final product and the biggest concern is that this increases the cost of living for Costa Ricans,” Sosa denounced. For example, if a kilo of something costs ¢1,000 colones, the company increases it to ¢1,300 to compensate for the extra costs in logistics and transportation.
According to the experts cited in this report, the most urgent thing is palliative work, such as increasing the draft depth or expanding the dock.
“What is needed is to define which are the most urgent works, how much they cost and how they are going to be paid for,” said Montenegro.
Earlier this month, several chambers were called to a meeting by the president of Incop and a committee was formed that will present short, medium and long-term approaches.
Two actions that are being analyzed are expanding the entrance to the port and enabling the land of the Ministerio de Obras Publicas y Transportes (MOPT) adjacent to the port area, to be able to move containers.
That meeting was followed up a week later in Golfito, where, as a palliative solution, certain loads can move through that terminal, for example, vehicles.
The Golfito terminal, operated by the Incop, is located some 300 kilometers (a six hour drive) from San José.
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