Shipping costs

I refer to Mark Micallef's article Shipping Costs On The Rise After Sea Malta Closure (January 4).

For the record Virtù Ferries will this month be taking delivery of the newly built super fast jumbo Catamaran M/V Maria Dolores. The vessel will be deployed on the Malta-Sicily-Reggio Calabria route with effect from this March.

The vessel carries 10 40-foot containers and 35 vehicles, palletised cargo and travels at a cruising speed of 36 knots. We shall be operating 450 scheduled return voyages per year, including twice weekly to Reggio Calabria, Catania and Pozzallo for six months of the year, increasing to twice weekly to Reggio Calabria and four weekly trips to Catania and Pozzallo for the other six months.

In order to compare like with like I give hereunder our charges for 20 and 40 foot containers:

Shipping costs, as every shipper knows, are multi-factorial; freight charges being just one of the factors. Frequency of service is another, affecting the cost of warehousing and storage. Another major factor is transit time; our crossing times are: Pozzallo, 90 minutes; Catania three hours; and Reggio Calabria four hours 30 minutes.

In our view, if shippers employ state-of-the-art technology shipping costs will not rise, they will actually fall as a result of being revolutionised.

Public service contracts, how they are awarded and crying wolf are another matter.