Shipping container cleaning service for Kingston

A joint venture investment between Scottish engineering firm Isocon and the Jamaican-owned JLB International Shipping to establish a shipping container cleaning and repair facility in Kingston will start operation on Monday, August 20.
The cleaning facility, the first of its kind locally, will provide much needed services at a global standard for food grade International Standards Organization (ISO) containers.

The Glasgow-based Isocon and JLB Shipping have invested more than US$250,000 in the venture, according to a release from JAMPRO.

According to Beverly Johnson, Managing Director of JLB Shipping, the operation can save importers and exporters both time and money.

“We saw the need to establish an ISO tanker cleaning, repairing and testing facility on the port of Kingston as there was no professional cleaning (service) in Jamaica, or for that matter in the Caribbean, so there was a need,” the release quoted Johnson as saying.

“Exporters of rum, flavourings, juices and other similar commodities are currently terribly inconvenienced as they have to wait on cleaned tanks from places like Rotterdam in Holland and Houston in the US,” Johnson said. This has serious implications for freight costs, she added.

“We are expecting that with the cleaning facilities now on the port of Kingston, the importers will see (a) reduction in the cost of freight for moving ISO tanks to be filled with rum, flavourings or any other liquid that’s moved in these types of tanks,” the JLB Shipping head said.
“So there should be some benefits to be derived,” Johnson said, emphasizing that exporters and importers will now have the ISO tanks immediately available.

From conceptualization to operation the Isocon/JLB project has taken approximately 18 months.

According to Johnson, the company will be recruiting its staff through the Human Employment and Resource Training/National Training Agency (HEART/NTA) and they will be given additional training at Isocon headquarters in Glasgow, Scotland.

JLB International is an international shipping and forwarding agency with offices in Jamaica, Trinidad and the United Kingdom.

Isocon Engineering is recognised as a world leader in setting and maintaining professional standards within the ISO container and Scotch whisky industry.

business@gleanerjm.com