The company that operates Bermuda’s only cargo dock continues to invest heavily in its operation despite “staring down the barrel” of the end of its operating licence, its chief executive officer said.
Warren Jones is CEO of Polaris Holding Company Ltd, the parent company of Stevedoring Services Ltd, which operates the Hamilton docks.
SSL’s exclusive operating licence for those docks expires in February 2021.
When the current five-year licence was issued by the Corporation of Hamilton in 2016, it advised SSL that rather than rolling over the contract, as had happened in the past, a request for proposal would be issued for the next contract term.
That RFP was to have been issued by the Corporation in March 2019, with the successful bidder to be notified in February 2020, a year prior to the expiration of SSL’s licence.
Mr Jones said SSL was later advised by the Corporation that the RFP would not be issued in March, but has heard nothing since.
While the company’s operation of the docks beyond February 2021 is uncertain, Mr Jones said the company recently purchased a new $2.32 million Manitowoc crane, and is reconditioning its 13-year-old Terex crane at a cost of more than $250,000, giving SSL access to a third crane.
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