TINIAN Marine Stevedore Inc. or TMSI is seeking exclusive rights to operate at the Port of Tinian.
The company’s acting president, Norman Tenorio, provided the Commonwealth Ports Authority’s board of directors a proposal, which was presented during a public hearing at the Tinian mayor’s office on Tuesday.
The proposed arrangement, Tenorio said, will allow the company to further invest in the improvement of the port, and secure financing “in providing the best possible service.”
He also noted that “the longshoring industry is subject to heavy capital investment with equipment acquisition, repairs and maintenance and regulatory training requirements.”
For the exclusive right to conduct terminal and stevedoring business at the Port of Tinian, Tenorio said, “we offer the payment of a franchise fee which will be based on the stevedoring operation gross revenue derived from within the port operations area footprint.”
TMSI proposes a franchise fee rate of 1% for an annual revenue of $1 to $250,000; 2% for an annual revenue of $251,000 to $500,000; and 3% for $500,000 and above in annual revenue.
In addition, TMSI offers an increase in franchise fee rate of one-half or 0.5% every five years from the start of the exclusivity period.
“This proposal is in addition to the current lease with CPA for our off-dock premises, which requires that we pay a monthly rent and additional gross revenue fee, equal to 1% of the gross revenues earned and collected on the premises,” TMSI stated in its proposal.
Lastly, the local company said, as an ongoing business with equipment intensive requirements, “we continue to provide for reinvestments such as dispatching a 160-ton crane earlier in May of this year and [a] 24-ton forklift in early 2020. This is in addition to our current equipment fleet that is already in place on Tinian.”
“Our future plans include the addition of a tractor and chassis to complement our current service with container/cargo delivery services to customers. Our estimated costs for the additional equipment is approximately $200,000,” the company added.
