KINGSTON, Jamaica – CARIBBEAN Cement Company says the vehicle weight management system is negatively impacting its business.

It brings Jamaica’s largest cement provider into a heated dispute between Government and Eastern Jamaica quarry operators, who say that their businesses have been crippled by the inequity in the weight management system — the state placed a weigh station in Harbour View, but it is the only such facility on the island, creating an uneven playing field with competitors elsewhere in the country.

More than 18 St Thomas crushing plants — among them, Jamaica Aggregates and Coast to Coast Quarry — engaged in the aggregate business have been affected. And Carib Cement this week said, on one hand, the situation has impacted its raw material haulage and cement transportation costs due to smaller load sizes being carried by the haulage trucks. It gives an unfair advantage to competitors in other parts of the island where the limits are not enforced, the company said.

What’s more is that Carib Cement said its subsidiary company, Jamaica Gypsum & Quarries Limited (JGQ), comprising an aggregate throughput business and gypsum exports, has been hit hard by the ordeal.

According to the company, there has been a reduction in the number of shipments from JGQ’s port in Harbour View and a loss in foreign exchange earnings to the company and country, against the background of aggregate suppliers having found themselves no longer competitive in their attempts to enter overseas markets.

“Many of the quarries in the eastern section of the island have cut back in production levels and the number of persons employed in their operations as they struggle with these increased costs that have made their business uneconomic and uncompetitive,” said Alice Hyde, Carib Cement’s marketing manager.

“This has had a negative impact on the livelihoods of persons in the communities surrounding the aggregate operations and will affect the welfare of a significant number of residents,” she added, noting that “if the aggregate throughput business continues to be reduced, then JGQ will experience a further loss in business as Jamaica Aggregates Ltd and Coast to Coast Quarries Ltd are the two main users of the pier”.

The throughput at the port for aggregate is approximately 15,000 tonnes per month. Revenue loss would be approximately US$165,000 for the remainder of the year, with an assumption that 10,000t of throughput would be curtailed, she noted.

Quarry operators met with the Transport Ministry this week and are in wait-and-see mode. Meanwhile, they paint a dire picture.

“We are awaiting a response,” said John Valentine, director at Jamaica Aggregrates Limited. “In the interim our businesses are being ravaged. We can’t sell anything.”

Clive Johnson, owner of Coast to Coast Quarry, said the situation could lead to the closing down of businesses.

“Business is extremely bad; it can’t be worse,” said Johnson. “We can’t be sitting back and losing money like this. You have to be making money to pay your overheads.

Carib Cement suggested that one solution that must be considered is the implementation of concrete roads instead of asphalt pavements as a viable long-term solution that will facilitate allowing larger weights to be transported on Jamaican roads.

“The concrete pavements will be designed to ensure that higher load factors can be facilitated and thus negate the need for the significant reduction in the recommended load size of the haulage vehicles,” said Hyde.