Q & A with Jose Puentes, Business Coordinator for Nirint Shipping

ExpoCaribe 2006, Cuba´s major entrepreneurial tradeshow held every year in the eastern part of the country, got underway last week with a turnout of seventy national and international companies. One of them is Netherlands´ Nirint Shipping and Caribbean News Digital had the chance of talking to one of its execs prior to the fair´s kickoff.

Q.- Can you tell us briefly what your company is all about in the first place?

A.- Nirint Shipping is a Dutch maritime company with a fleet that has acquired three new vessels: the Nirint Atlas, the Nirint Pride and the Nirint Champion, and they will all be dispatched to provide cargo coverage for an area stretching from Northern Europe all the way to Spain´s Bilbao to carry containers or bulk goods to the ports of Havana and Moa in Cuba, including equipment related to the island nation´s nickel industry.

Q.- What main services does your company guarantee to its customers in Cuba?

A.- First of all, all cargo shipments linked, as I said, to Cuba´s nickel industry in Moa. I mean, either raw materials or heavy machinery. It also covers Cuban exports towards Canada and Northern Europe, to such ports as Rotterdam and Moerdijk.

Q.- What are you planning to do in ExpoCaribe 2006?

A.- We´ll be attending this fair just as visitors with a portfolio in hands. I mean, we won´t attend as exhibitors with a stand of our own. We´re going to cash in on this opportunity to make a few contacts with our customers in eastern Cuba and overseas.

Q.- Why are you interested in this particular fair?

A.- As I said at the top of this interview, this is a pretty good opportunity to make contacts and beef up others that are key to our business relations.

Q.- What´s your opinion of ExpoCaribe as stacked up against other events you´ve taken part in?

A.- I believe it´s a major tradeshow because it brings together enterprises from eastern Cuba that hardly ever get a chance to attend big-time fairs in Havana. In addition to that, this event kind of gives us a jump on the road ahead and on what we expect to see in FIHAV, Cuba´s number-one commercial tradeshow.