The re-establishment of the international flow of goods after the months of stoppage forced by the pandemic has left problematic consequences for companies in the Canary Islands. Freight costs have multiplied by up to 5 for imported goods from Asia, which is especially upsetting the construction sector.
In a territory like ours, where almost everything has to be imported and where 90% of the materials used by builders are brought from Asia, that a container goes from 1,400 to 6,400 euros in a single year represents the total collapse of the accounts of any company. The biggest problem they face is that of public works, contracts that they already had closed at a price and that now they cannot fulfill without losing large sums of money. José Gestoso, the representative of the Tenerife construction association Fepeco for relations with the port, raises the need for at least 70 or 80 percent of the extra cost to be passed on. Otherwise, he explains, they would have no way of avoiding ruin. The president of Fepeco, Óscar Izquierdo, highlights that it is not a generalized review of all contracts, but only those that were signed before the pandemic and that now “have been affected by this situation, unsustainable for companies” .
All sectors suffer from this problem to a greater or lesser extent. In fact, it is a situation that occurs on an international scale, since Asia has been the factory of the world for quite some time. Textiles, sanitary material, technological components … Canarian industry is also affected. What happens is that they do not have such a high percentage of imports from Asia. They also bring from the Peninsula and the rest of Southern Europe. The cost of these freights has also risen, but by between 9 and 10%, compared to almost 500% in Asia. Andrés Calvo, manager of Químicas Ascanio, points out that at the moment there is much more demand than supply of freight, which results in an increase in prices.
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As for why these costs have skyrocketed, opinions differ. The builders maintain that it is because a ‘pool’ of shipping companies that operate with Asia has been created because they have seen that they have the possibility of earning the same with fewer ships, and that this strategy is more advantageous to them. They demand that the Canarian Government demand the intervention of the EU. On the other hand, other sectors see it as a temporary problem, although, yes, they advocate monitoring it. Calvo advocates appealing to the National Commission of Markets and Competition to detect if it is possible that these speculative practices are taking place.
The smaller islands have it even worse, because the shipping companies have eliminated the stopovers, with which we must add the cost of double insularity. In any case, the companies that receive their goods in the chicharrero port face even more extra costs due to the slowness of the dispatches. José Gestoso denounces that this means that they have to add another extra cost, that of the delay in the return of the empty containers.
For now, in addition to meeting with the Port Authority to ask them to lighten the dispatches, Fepeco calls on all the Canarian administrations to review the prices of the public works that they have contracted with them. They assure that it is a necessary measure to save them from ruin. They have also maintained contacts with the president of the Tenerife Council, Pedro Martín, and with the president of FECAM, Mari Brito. Óscar Izquierdo explained that Brito has promised to address the problem in the next assembly of mayors to try to find a solution.
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