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Record Numbers of Goods Shipped Through South Florida Ports, Experts Said

Posted on: Friday, 17 March 2006, 21:00 CST

By Doreen Hemlock, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Mar. 16--South Florida handled record trade in goods at its ports in 2005, but the area faces big challenges to keep up last year's 12 percent growth, trade experts said Wednesday.

Stricter security rules are making it tougher for international goods to transit through South Florida en route to Latin America. Overseas residents also are finding it harder to get U.S. visas to visit on business. The average time to obtain a U.S. visa in Brazil -- South Florida's top trade partner -- now runs about 120 days, said Lee Sandler of Miami-based law firm Sandler Travis & Rosenberg P.A.

The concerns came at a seminar organized by Coral Gables-based publisher WorldCity Inc., which analyzed U.S. Commerce data to find that South Florida ports posted a new high for goods traded with foreign ports last year -- $65.9 billion.

Airports and seaports from Key West to Fort Pierce also posted the biggest trade surplus of any U.S. Customs district last year: -- $2.2 billion more in goods sent out to foreign ports than those brought in.

That's because Latin American nations -- flush with cash from exporting oil, metals and other commodities now fetching high prices worldwide -- used their windfall income to buy big-ticket items shipped from South Florida ports: computers, cell-phones and construction equipment, WorldCity found.

"Miami's role in trade is to export to Latin America. That's where it's making all the money and that's where the growth is," John Price, president of Coral Gables-based market research company InfoAmericas told more than 60 executives at the breakfast seminar.

"And this year, Latin America will continue to buy those big-ticket items," Price said, predicting a new record for South Florida trade in 2006.

Challenges still abound, especially because South Florida ports depend so heavily on foreign goods in-transit to other countries. Producers in Europe and Asia often send shipping containers full to the area, where companies break up the big lots and send smaller amounts with other items to various nations, such as tiny Caribbean isles.

Today, tougher U.S. security and safety regulations are prompting some companies to consider shifting some shipments through Panama, Dominican Republic or other seaports. In one case, new U.S. standards for air-conditioners are complicating imports of air-conditioners made in Asia and bound for Latin America, where standards differ, Sandler said.

South Florida ranked 13th among U.S. Customs for the value of foreign trade at its ports last year, down from the No. 12 slot in 2004. The Los Angeles area ranked tops, with imports from Asia helping to catapult its goods trade with foreign ports to $293.9 billion last year, up 11.3 percent, the data showed.

By product, WorldCity said the top import into South Florida last year was non-crude oil, including gas, jet fuel and other refined petroleum products sent to Port Everglades.

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Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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