The saga centers around the plight of the Panamanian-flagged ship Mary Nour and its 41-member crew, who have been stuck at Mexican ports since July 17 after cement giant Cemex cited safety concerns and technicalities to keep them from unloading their cargo.
The battle over the Mary Nour has touched a raw nerve in a country that touts free trade, but where just one or two big firms dominate many industries.
"There is a lot of deceptive rhetoric about how Mexico is open to commerce, but what we're seeing in practice is absolutely the opposite," said Ricardo Camacho, director of CDM, the importer. Camacho said Cemex charges more than double what is a reasonable price, an accusation the company denies.
Mexico's Treasury Secretariat had no immediate reaction to the accusations. Cemex, which has a majority market share here, acknowledges Mexican prices are high compared to many other markets, and only slightly cheaper than in the United States.
But company officials blame expensive energy, labor, transport, distribution and regulatory costs in Mexico, and the absence of government subsidies many foreign producers get. "Cemex is not opposed to imports," said Cemex spokesman Gerardo de la Torre. "We do not use pressure against potential competitors."
CDM says it can buy cement in Russia at $32 per ton, bring it halfway around the world for $30 per ton and still sell it in Mexico at up to 10 percent below local prices. The government has seized the Mary Nour's cargo as contraband, and the ship's 41-member crew -- which includes Philippine, Croatian and British citizens -- was denied water at Tampico for about a week, before moving on to the neighboring port of Altamira.
"It was uncomfortable, because the men had to wash the old-fashioned way, in salt water," said the Mary Nour's Norwegian captain, Steinar Dahl. Cemex says it obtained a court order to block the ship from tying up as a floating distribution center for cement shipments, fearing it would endanger shipping in Tampico.
Mexico's National Cement Chamber, the largest of whose five members is Cemex, has argued that CDM lacked registry as an authorized importer, a status denied the firm by officials acting on the recommendation of the chamber itself.
The chamber has pressed smuggling charges against CDM, and says its cement should never be offloaded. It argues "there is no need to import cement from other countries to meet domestic demand" -- a common anti-competition attitude in a country whose two dominant airlines still operate under the same holding company, despite a recommendation by federal regulators that they be split up years ago.
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