Bahamian consumers are continuing to pay higher energy costs with a recent round of gasoline price increases, a higher electricity fuel surcharge this month, and at least one shipping company announcing increased surcharges of its own.
Tropical Shipping recently advised that effective October 1, it will implement a new bunker surcharge for shipments originating from or shipped to the United States for The Bahamas.
A release from the company listed increases of $18 to $41 for different containers. This means that in some cases the bunker charge for a container will jump from $42 to $60. In some cases it will move from $102 to $143 per container.
The company said it has established a practice of absorbing the cost of fuel increases before considering any bunker surcharge increases.
It said the average price of a barrel of crude oil is regularly analyzed. However, the company said in its release, if the cost of the fuel remains at a higher level over a period of time, then adjustments are made to the bunker charge accordingly.
The release pointed out that as recently as August 28, 2006, West Texas Intermediate Crude (WTI) was trading at $70.61 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It noted that the eight-week average price per barrel of WTI crude has increased to $73.94.
“Recent news and global events indicated that these trends are likely to continue,” the company said.
“To continue to provide the highest quality, on-time transportation to our customers, additional recovery of these absorbed costs are now warranted.”
Only last month analysts with the Department of Statistics said the increase in the value of total imports was due primarily to oil price increase.
Philip Simon, executive director at the Chamber of Commerce, said Thursday that with these increases occurring eventually The Bahamas would become “an expensive place to live as well as an expensive place to do business.”
He explained that as goods and services increase costs to consumers would increase.
Additionally, Mr. Simon pointed out that the current status of Bahamians living with these increases is seemingly manageable.
“What you are seeing right now is not a big surprise given the dynamics that are happening in the world economy, driven primarily by the increase of the cost of fuel which is a major input into overhead and into transportation,” Mr. Simon said.
“I believe we have been coping, but at the same time we donﾒt want to price ourselves out of the tourism market. In addition to that, we want to maintain the standard of living that we have. If it spirals too much out of control then that means that adjustments would have to be made in lifestyles.”
By: Perry Scavella, The Bahama Journal
