Scrap metal that has been accumulating and taking up space in the George Town landfill is on its way out.
A tug named the American Challenger and a barge named the JMC 300 have been contracted by Matrix International to transport the metal and have been loading up in the harbour over the past few days.
‘The metal shipment is headed to a mill in Mobile, Alabama, where it will be re-processed,’ explained John McKenzie, the shipping agent for the marine transport company.
‘The port has been busy. Some of the metal was loaded last week and then on the weekend the barge had to stand off at sea waiting for space at the dock. The barge got back to the pier at 10am on Monday morning and the loading continues. We expect the shipment to leave in the next few days.’
Bruce Young is the 40 per cent foreign partner of the local company Matrix International. The majority owner is William Bodden and Andrew McLaughlin sits on the board of directors.
Young said getting the scrap out of Cayman has been a struggle.
‘It is costing $20,000 a day to rent the tug and the barge and we can’t get in to load. We were 90 miles away from Cayman when Hurricane Dean was approaching and we had to turn back, it cost us $150,000 for nothing.’
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works Carson Ebanks said the contract stipulated the loose scrap was to be removed from the landfill by 1 August, so clearly Matrix is now beyond the deadline set out in the contract and there is still a considerable volume of material to be removed.
‘The Ministry is trying to determine if there are legitimate reasons for the delay. We are also considering an appropriate response; if it is determined the delay is not reasonable.’
Matrix International was awarded the contract to remove scrap metal from the George Town landfill back in December 2006. The company offered to pay Government $1,250,000 for the metal, which was the highest of the three bids presented to the Central Tenders Committee.
Mr. Young claims the process has been completely transparent and he has ‘bent over backwards’ to get the metal removed, but has faced numerous challenges.
‘The bid was accepted in December and I came down to Cayman to begin work. It then took Government three months to complete and sign the contract and I was losing money every day.’
According to Mr. Young, the contract was finally signed on 18 March. He then claims equipment failures at the dump resulted in more delays.
‘The government baler that is supposed to process the scrap metal has only worked 23 out of 178 days. They get it working for a few days and then it breaks down again, it is frustrating.’
Matrix has already taken some of scrap away over the past few months.
‘Two shipments went out on the vessel Mostein and one load left on the Rose Ella, but so far the contract has cost us money; we haven’t made a thing.’
Mr. Young said the barge that is in the harbour can take approximately 7,000 tons of scrap alone, which compares to a combined total of 6,200, which went out in the previous three shipments.
‘As soon as we unload this shipment the barge will return and we hope to have our portion of the landfill cleared in two and a half weeks.’
On the subject of failing to pay local contractors that have been employed to truck the scrap metal to the dump, Young admitted the company owes some bills.
‘I came down here with 1.2 million dollars and I have gone through every bit of it. I have now got a bit behind, but I can’t pay when I don’t have any money.’
He said he has every intention of paying everyone the money they are owed.
‘I always pay my bills,’ he said.
Mr. Young says one of the problems has been the conversion from US into CI dollars.
‘The mill is paying in US dollars and the workers are being paid in CI dollars so I have been losing money every time there is an exchange transaction. I am getting approximately $150/ton for the scrap and it is costing between $75 and $100 to get it to the market (The mill in Alabama).’
On Monday night Mr. Young estimated he had 25 trucks working and five excavators working that night.
The company was busy clearing up abandoned vehicles, tanks and other old metal all over the Island.
‘It is not part of contract with Government, but we are going around everywhere we can and clearing up. We are completely within our rights to do this and occasionally we are even giving some money to some people for metal they want to have removed.’
In terms of his background, Mr. Young lives in New Brunswick on the East coast of Canada where he owns a towing and salvage company.
He says the job in Cayman has been very challenging so far.
‘I have been honest and consistent since day one; the comments in the other newspaper (Net News) about the bidding and the other local company are (expletive deleted). Their sources are incorrect, they are rude and ignorant.’
He has also been frustrated by the equipment failure of the baler, weather issues and lack of space for loading at the dock. In regards to his 60 per cent Cayman partner Mr. William Bodden, Young said that he didn’t like having to ‘give away 60 per cent of his company for nothing.’
A lot of the metal that is being removed by Matrix International came into the landfill following Hurricane Ivan in 2004, but the material has been stored and stockpiled in the dump for years prior to that.
Shortage of space at the 73 acre landfill site in George Town is a concern for the Government and earlier Arden McLean, the Minister for Works indicated that the administration is looking at a range of new options to deal with waste, including the possibility of a waste to energy plant.’
This type of facility reduces the rate that garbage is accumulating by safely burning it and turning into usable energy that can be placed on the grid.
Mr. Young estimates that the scrap he is taking away to be recycled will free up between six and seven acres of space at the landfill.
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