Maritime Services

Maritime Services

Our robust maritime infrastructure, strategic geographic location, specialized value chain and ecosystem provide the right environment for your commercial maritime operations or leisure marine activities.  

Investment Opportunities

Lay-up of Vessels

T&T’s natural and safe harbor makes it a preferred location for the storage of ships. This may be particularly useful to oil and gas services companies during periods of a business slowdown. We seek to expand the lay-up activities in Trinidad and Tobago as per the government legal, institutional and administrative framework.

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Offshore Bulk Transshipment

The calm waters of the Gulf are ideal for companies wishing to transship raw materials out of South American countries such as Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana to European and Asian markets. The Port Offshore transshipment facility transfers ore and bulk cargo to North America and China. 

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Ship Repair & Dry-docking Services

There are several ship repair facilities located in Trinidad including one dry dock facility with a lifting capacity of 23,000 metric tonnes (MT) and an overall length of 230 meters

Industry Facts

  • Naturally sheltered deep water harbor
  • Lowest downtime impact of the hurricane season, in the Caribbean
  • Specialized workforce – well established maritime service providers & technical level training options
  • 5 ports - includes 2 international container ports
  • 8 Marinas within the Chaguaramas Maritime Cluster
  • Existing bunkering facilities

Key stakeholders

Facilities

Commercial Marine

Increased activity in the manufacturing sector and requisite growth in import/export trade has led to growth in the Commercial Maritime services industry. Trinidad and Tobago is now a strategic transshipment sub-hub for exporters wishing to target other smaller Caribbean islands and the mainland in South America.

Leisure Marine

The country’s leisure marine activities are concentrated in the Chaguaramas cluster tucked in the north-western peninsula of Trinidad. 

Key to this cluster is the Chaguaramas Bay which is an exceptionally sheltered natural harbour. It is one of the best locations in the Caribbean for yacht storage and repair centres.

 

  • 8 marinas/boatyards
  • The industry is serviced by approximately 470 in-water berths with available accommodation for an estimated 1000 yachts on land
  • It is export oriented with an average 70% to 80% of its sales going to transient yachts
  • About 180 companies throughout Trinidad cater to the yachting industry

Incentives

Import Duty Concessions

Locally registered firms engaged in ship building and ship repair are allowed duty free treatment on their machinery, equipment and materials for use in the boat and ship building and repairs industry.

Value Added Tax Exemption

Repair services for ships involved in commercial maritime are exempt from VAT under the provisions of the Value Added Tax Act

Training Allowance

Companies are allowed expenses reasonably incurred in the training and retraining of employees up to 150% of such expenditure under Section 10E of the Corporation Tax Act, Chapter 75:02.

Yachting Allowances

Under the Corporate Tax Act, any company which promotes or sponsors yachting will be allowed an allowance equal to 150% of the actual expenditure incurred in respect of such promotion or sponsorship, up to a maximum of $450,000.

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Investments

TEL: +1 868 225 4688FAX: +1 868 225 5820