Industry welcomes the ban on metal exports

posted on: Mar 17 2010 13:44 by Royston. Viewed 339 times.


According to the Export and Investment Center of the Dominican Republic (CEI-RD), of the 38 companies in the copper-exporting country, only four are registered with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.

For that reason the Metales Antillanos company president, Jose Ignacio Acero, agreed with the recent action of the Director General of Customs (DGA), which temporarily suspended the export of copper cable and other materials.

He said that theft causes loss of millions to private and public electric and telephone companies and institutions.
Acero said his company had been facing this problem for four years, and had sent letters and suggestions to the DGA to curb this problem which created unfair competition through the theft of materials.

Jos� Alberto Acero, vice president of the company, explained that people fill shipping containers with all kinds of metal, including copper, and then export without any control or supervision. He also said that even stones are loaded in the containers, passing them off as scrap.

Metales Antillanos has been in business more than 20 years and exports annually between 30 and 35 thousand tons. However, the company president said the company had been exporting 100 thousand tons  a year, but with the increase in illegal and unfair competition in the last four years, exports fell drastically .

The vice president welcomed the actions by the DGA in Decree number 334-07 and suggested the use of international inspectors to monitor and certify containers for export