A dry dock comes to La Brea

ON THURSDAY, the Minister of Finance announced that the Government would pursue the construction of a massive dry dock in La Brea, after a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Government and the China Harbour Engineering Company in September 2018.

The dock and "associated facilities" will be built by the China Ghezhouba Group International to accommodate Panama-sized vessels.

Apart from details on exactly what stage the plan has reached (an MoU and a contract are not the same thing) one question that needs to be asked is why. Why a major dry dock project in La Brea in the midst of a pandemic, and what purpose is it expected to serve?

A port facility and preliminary construction on a port project for La Brea was well underway a decade ago, but that project had a clear purpose, to serve the heavy vessel traffic anticipated for the industrial development that was expected to coalesce around the stillborn aluminium smelter plant planned for the area.

The new dry dock project is expected to cost $4 billion to create two dry docks and 15 berths for Panama-class cargo vessels, beginning with the dry docks and one berth.

Minister Colm Imbert did not clarify what the $4 billion would pay for. Is it the first phase only? That's important information for the public to consider as the country inches towards implementation.

The project was first announced in 2018, resurfaced in January 2019, to commence later that year, and then disappeared again until last week's reminder that it remains on the Government's agenda.

The market identified for this project is the heavy transport shipping route that's as close as 25 nautical miles from TT after passing through the Panama Canal, estimated to run to more than 31,000 voyages per year.

The project will eventually expand to cover 361 hectares of land, which presumably will be scoured from the adjoining sea floor that must be dredged to accommodate these deep-draught ships.

Three concerns arise from these hopeful plans.

The investment is expected to generate US$500 million annually by its fourth year of operation, which really means the eighth year, because the project will take four years to build.

There is an immediate need for a major investment in training for relevant skill sets in shipbuilding, refitting and maintenance of industrial-scale ships, if there is to be effective knowledge transfer to locals.

TT also can't wait until the project is complete to begin courting business in the global shipping market, so a serious commitment, including civil-society endorsement, needs to be made quickly – as well as publicising exact details of the agreement’s progress to date and the basis of calculations of its utility and profitability.