Dominican shippers debunk exporters´ gripe of high costs

Santo Domingo.- DominicanRepublic´s shipping companies grouped in the ANRD on Wednesday said the cost toship Dominican products to the US and other countries by sea have dropped up to30%, mainly

The shippers´ statementresponds to a complaint voiced Monday by the exporters grouped in Adoexpo, whosay Dominican shipping companies fail to cut freight costs to the main exportdestinations, despite that international maritime freight fees from China tothe Caribbean have fallen 70%.

The shippers said lowerfreight rates for containers from China and the East to the US and mainly Europeover the last year, and therefore the rest of the world, stem from the currentglobal glut in transport capacity.

"The Chineseeconomy hasn’t grown at double-digit percentages as expected, but internationalshipping companies had ships built with that growth in mind, creating anovercapacity estimated at 30%," the ARD said in a statement.

It adds that for theseroutes the shipping companies ordered oversized ships capable of carrying up to20,000, 20-foot containers taking into account that those boats consumeconsiderably less fuel per transport unit than the current ones.