This paper seeks to examine the Caribbean shipping industry from three perspectives_
1. Efficiency and adequacy of the maritime transport service and infrastructure
2. Opportunities for employment for Caribbean nationals
3. State of environmental machinery to protect the Caribbean Sea Basin.
The new logistic concepts such as globalisation, Just-In-Time (JIT) and outsourcing have created the need for the establishment of complex international distribution chain. This ultimate goal is to allow shippers to place the right product on the manufacturing or retail floor anywhere in the world at the right time and the right price. As a result, global logistic service providers have emerged in the past three decades, and their priority objectives emphasise the paramount need of satisfying customer-driven demand. To achieve this objective, they frequently rely on partnership with industrial, distribution and transport entities. The global shipping industry, for example, is driven by forces of scale and technology. As such, the Caribbean, comprising a group of discontented islands sharing space, is challenged to find relevance within this paradigm. It is true that sustained globalisation and global logistics would not be possible without a dense and efficient transport network. It is equally true that both the concept and its enabling tools have had a tremendous impact on maritime transport. This global trend therefore begs the question “how does the Caribbean fit into this picture”? Given the poor performance of many container terminals in the Caribbean, it is not surprising that handling charges are two or three times as high as in similar ports in other regions of the world, and that the overall cost of transport and insurance in the Caribbean Basin is some 30% higher than the world average.
