KINGSTON Freeport Terminal Limited (KFTL) is still reeling from the effects of the logistics backlog which started during the novel coronavirus pandemic and worsened with the Russia/Ukraine war.

In an exclusive interview with the Jamaica Observer, chief executive officer (CEO) of KFTL Jedrzej Mierzewski admitted that there is a backlog at the port but said this is not unique to Kingston.

“Everybody is trying to ship, and the shipping is connection — it’s a logistics chain. If something is going wrong somewhere, everybody is affected. It’s not a phenomena of Jamaica or Kingston, it’s a phenomena of the world,” said Mierzewski.

He explained that the backlog, which one local producer said is visible at the port, is the result of a chain of disruptions in global logistics.

“This is no secret, everybody has the same problem. Jamaica is not so affected as others. You have weeks of containers waiting there in Europe, a situation which you have not heard for years before because it was the best-organised system of logistics. So, it is a problem and nobody can say it doesn’t exist,” he added.

With that, he argued that blaming KFTL for the backlog isn’t fair.

“Very often it’s easy to finger point but it’s not about the finger-pointing, it’s about an entire chain of action — this port is just a small section of it.”

Chief Operating Officer (COO) Carlos Cabrera told the Business Observer that during the pandemic the backlog started on the west coast of the US where vessels were waiting up to three weeks to be serviced.

“It got to a point where vessels were arriving and waiting for a month to come in,” he said.

As a result, logistics changed to the east coast where KFTL has the most interaction because the terminal is located on the Atlantic side.

“Jamaica, being in such a prime location, we do a lot of trans-shipment so cargo arrives from other areas and we redistribute to our region,” Cabrera explained.

“As the shift started from the west side to the east coast, the ports in the east side started to suffer the same effects as the west coast so you have major ports on the east coast having vessels wait up to three weeks. Also, in the Gulf Coast they’d come in but they are anchored, waiting to be serviced. All of the vessels going to these ports are the ones making the same loops throughout the region and connecting with us. So, if you had four vessels going through the region on a weekly basis you now have to add 10 to 15 days’ waiting. They’re not able to do the full loop so instead of coming every week, they start coming every 14 days — and that adds more containers to the service and there’s a limit to how many containers are available as well,” added Cabrera.

Put simply, Cabrera illustrated that the backlog, which may start at another port, creates a space issue for KFTL. “If we have a terminal that can fit 10 containers, those containers will stay a week. All of a sudden, because the system is interrupted in other ports, now it’s taking two weeks so now you can only do five containers because there is no space.”

In that vein the CEO said “I always want more — more space, more productivity — I want more. We know that it is also important for the Jamaican economy so that’s what we’re here for.”

Despite the limited space, Mierzewski clarified that KFTL is not turning back vessels that arrive at the port. He said if they leave, it is their decision to do so.

“We move containers. When containers come, we discharge them, we deliver, and that’s it. If someone else decides to divert the box there’s nothing we can do — but we never, ever say ‘No, we don’t want this container anymore.’ It’s my money; that’s what we live for. We live when we move the containers,” he emphasised.

When quizzed about the wait time and the frequency of vessels deciding to divert containers from KFTL, Cabrera said, “It’s not frequent. If you take into account that we work over 30 vessels a week and that has happened once or twice, it’s not common. And that has to do also with what is happening in the region, which windows they have in other ports, and sometimes what they do is not that they would bypass Kingston. It’s that they would go to another port first, and then come back to Kingston and work it out, trying to minimise the effect they can have on their rotations.”

KFTL is rated for 3.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units/containers (TUs) per year and is at two million TUs so far this year.

But the company stressed that as its dual time — the length of stay of a container at a terminal — doubles up, it is losing half of its yard capacity.

“So it doesn’t mean we don’t have the throughput, it just means that containers are being parked here — and that’s a global effect. If you look at our historical dual time it has been within the week since the inception of the port but, of course, COVID had never happened before and this major disruption to the logistics chain,” the COO highlighted.

He said “as it started filling up we’re keeping up. So as other ports were suffering from backlogs early last year, we were able to keep up.”

To that end, the KFTL executives disclosed they have implemented new strategies to improve efficiency and productivity.

“We are adjusting to the situation; we are not sitting idle and saying we can’t do anything,” Mierzewski stated.

He revealed that the company invested more than US$23 million on 19 new straddle carriers which are intended to improve operations at the port significantly, especially during this logistics crisis.

Four of the straddle carriers have already arrived and are operational. The remaining 15 are expected to be delivered in October this year.

“The cost of each of those is over US$1 million so there is big investments coming to the port —and we intend to keep growing that way and preparing for better. We are preparing for what is called peak season. We are bringing in more equipment, extending gate hours, we are making available more appointments, we are in close coordination with the PAJ [Port Authority of Jamaica] and Customs on how to improve the truck turnaround time, and we’re doing new pavements for the scanners to be faster. So, a lot of initiatives are going into improving the work,” Cabrera assured.

At the same time the CEO stressed that KFTL is currently hiring and is accepting applications.

“We are constantly hiring people as Jamaicans are very smart, and once they get trained they go to Canada and the US and we have to train them again — that’s a fact of life. They are good at what they do but they are getting better jobs and a better life somewhere else.”