The Listin Diario reports today on the impasse between SL Services Inc./CSX and the Port Authority and the Dominican Association of Shippers. The newspaper’s sources say that the CSX Crusader freighter was prevented from docking at Haina port on 9 April in order to pressure SL Services to negotiate with sectors that feel they are being left out of the new construction of the Punta Caucedo mega port. The new US$300 million port is slated to replace Haina as the DR’s main sea port. Promoters have announced all is ready for the construction of the new port to start this summer. SL Services is owned by a holding company presided over by John Snow, a lawyer and economist who is also president of Verizon, proprietor of Codetel, the Dominican Republic’s leading telecommunications company. President Hipolito Mejia has given his go ahead to the construction of the Punta Caucedo megaport. The port already had been authorized by former President Leonel Fernández, but the promoters delayed the start of construction to secure the support of President Mejia. The port complex construction should be completed in a year and a half. The new port will have an extension of 820,000 square meters, and 1,100 meters of coastal frontage facing the Caribbean Sea. In addition to the dock, the port will feature 500,000 square meters for transshipment operations and a 300,000 square meter warehouse and distribution area. Listin Diario says that SL Service Inc. has taken the Dominican Port Authority to court demanding the suspending of a resolution that affects the former Sealand Services operations. The case will next be heard at the Tribunal de lo Contencioso y Administrativo. The resolution establishes that Sealand contractual rights to the port have expired and the Dominican Port Authority in December 2000 was awarded control of the Haina facility, regarding programming of docking of ships, cargo handling, vigilance and security operations. Sources explained to the Listin Diario that shipping companies that are being left out of the new port that will be managed by CSX World Terminals of North Carolina feel they will be left with just charging for freight and that they will no longer have control over loading and unloading of cargo services, where the real profits in the industry are made. The sources indicate that Punta Caucedo will quickly replace the Port of Haina’s obsolete facilities- it is disorganized and not deep enough to receive large ships. The Listin Diario says that the president of the Dominican Shipping Association, Arias Mella convinced the director of the Port Authority not to allow the CSX Crusader ship to enter to send a message that the project would not move ahead if they are not allowed to participate.
