MOVING INTO DIFFERENT AREAS OF LOGISTICS
COME NEXT year, businesses and householders who normally spend up to a day or longer to clear containers and barrels with personal effects from the port in Kingston, will be able to do so within a few hours from Kingston Wharves Limited’s new total logistics facility.
The port company is investing US$15 million in the state-ofthe-art logistics complex, said Kingston Wharves Chief Executive Officer Grantley Stephenson, noting that it is on track to be completed by May 2017.
Construction of the 162,000square-foot facility is being undertaken by BYD Construction, a China-based firm.
Project manager Keith Rigbye said that when completed, all containers will be taken directly from the wharf to the facility where there will be Jamaica Customs Agency scanners “and everything will be scanned before it goes into storage”.
Rigbye explained that “when the customers come into the customer service hall to process their documents, their goods
Grantley Stephenson said the firm was expanding into different areas of logistics, explaining that in order to handle increased business, they have had to acquire additional and bigger, more expensive equipment to handle larger ships.
Referring to a Maersk shipment that Kingston Wharves comfortably handled recently because it could not make it to The Bahamas due to the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew to the Freeport Terminal, he said “the idea is to continue to grow in that direction while we look at other opportunities for further growth”. The warehouse activities from the berths at the port terminal, as well as some international logistics business, will be relocated to the total logistics facility. Stephenson said clearance of barrels, usually sent to families from relatives mainly in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, will be among the warehousing activities relocated to the new facility. “What we are moving to is a situation CEO of Kingston Wharves Limited Grantley Stephenson (right) explains a map of the port facility to minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Dr Horace Chang, during a tour of Kingston Wharves on Thursday, October 27. Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Dr Horace Chang, leads a team down from the new Liebherr crane during a recent media tour of Kingston Wharves.
where the barrels will be precleared. So the duty will be determined before the customer
gets here and he can pay that online. So when he comes here, he just picks up his barrel, or
whatever, and goes. That’s where we are headed,” the port company executive said.