SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Con­sumers can ex­pect low­er com­mod­i­ty prices for goods com­ing from Chi­na in the com­ing months, says Mukesh Ram­s­ingh, pres­i­dent of the Cou­va Point Lisas Cham­ber of Com­merce (CPLCC).

At the time, he was speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia at the open­ing of The Port TT, a ship­ping con­tain­er-style food court at South­ern Main Road, Mc Bean, Cou­va on Wednes­day.

Ac­cord­ing to Ram­s­ingh, the cost of ship­ping a 40-foot con­tain­er of goods from Chi­na has dras­ti­cal­ly dropped to around US$1,650 from a re­cent high of al­most US$25,000.

Freight costs had sky­rock­et­ed dur­ing the height of the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic, caus­ing the price of  sev­er­al com­modi­ties to in­crease be­yond 100 per­cent.

“We will see a re­duc­tion in the cost of all com­modi­ties com­ing from Chi­na,” he said. “We may not see it right away, but it will hap­pen grad­u­al­ly.”  

The CPLCC pres­i­dent said prices have al­ready start­ed drop­ping for con­struc­tion ma­te­ri­als. He said steel prices are start­ing to fall to around US$8,000 a tonne from US$12,000.

He al­so in­di­cat­ed that the CPLCC is hold­ing talks cur­rent­ly with the Hauliers As­so­ci­a­tion, with re­gard to con­tain­er haulage costs from the port caused by in­creased fu­el costs.

Ram­s­ingh said the open­ing of the Port food court was a plus for the Cou­va com­mu­ni­ty, since the fa­cil­i­ty would gen­er­ate em­ploy­ment and get more peo­ple in­volved in busi­ness.

Mean­while, spokesper­son for The Port TT, Cherise Joseph-Samuel, said the struc­ture is the first con­tain­er style food court in T&T.

She told Guardian Me­dia the idea start­ed dur­ing the pan­dem­ic as a food truck and grad­u­at­ed to a con­tain­er style struc­ture.

Joseph-Samuel not­ed the fa­cil­i­ty has sev­en fast food out­lets and a planned high end restau­rant. She said rent is very com­pet­i­tive and the Port plans to ex­pand to oth­er ar­eas.