The Landed Cost Has Four Parts
A sett price on its own tells a buyer in the US Virgin Islands very little. The number that matters is the cost of stone standing on site ready to lay, and it is built from four things: the material, the freight, what the territory charges at the border, and the labor to install it. Each behaves differently and only one of them is a per-square-foot figure. Treating the whole thing as a single rate is how a paving budget goes wrong.
Customs: What a Mainland Assumption Gets Wrong
This is the detail a mainland assumption gets wrong, so it is worth stating flatly. The US Virgin Islands is a United States territory, but it sits outside the US customs territory and maintains its own customs laws, enforced by the Virgin Islands Bureau of Customs. A shipment leaving Florida for St. Thomas is not a domestic move for customs purposes. Customs duty is generally 6 percent ad valorem on articles manufactured or originating outside the territorial sovereignty of the United States and brought into the Virgin Islands.
Why Origin Documents Earn Their Keep
Origin is commercially load-bearing here in a way it never is on a mainland sale. Goods of US origin are exempt from Virgin Islands customs duty, though they remain subject to excise tax. For foreign-origin articles shipped from within the US customs zone, 33 V.I.C. section 525 sets the Virgin Islands duty at the amount which, added to duty already paid to the United States, equals 6 percent of the value of the article on import into the Virgin Islands. In plain terms, you receive credit for US duty already paid and the territory tops it up to 6 percent.
- Ask your supplier for the origin of every line before the order is confirmed.
- Keep the commercial invoice, packing list and origin documentation together for the broker.
- Duty and tax are calculated on the CIF value, so freight and insurance sit inside the base.
- An import broker is customarily used to file clearance documents, and yours can confirm current filing requirements.
Excise, Gross Receipts and No Sales Tax
There is no sales tax in the US Virgin Islands. Instead, excise tax applies to articles imported for use or resale in a trade or business under 33 V.I.C. sections 42 and 43, and a gross receipts tax applies to the Virgin Islands business making the sale. The recent history is unusual: excise collection was halted by a federal injunction in November 2018 after litigation reached the Third Circuit, and resumed in March 2021. Current rates and filing practice should be confirmed with your broker rather than assumed from a published summary.
Incentives Worth Asking About
Projects running through the Economic Development Commission program administered by the USVI Economic Development Authority have carried an exemption from excise tax on building materials used in constructing the beneficiary’s facilities, together with a reduced customs duty rate. If a project may qualify, that belongs in the budget conversation early, because it changes the landed cost of every pallet rather than a single line. Confirm current terms and eligibility with the authority directly before relying on them.
Labor: What Small Units Cost in Hours
Setts are laid one at a time. That is their advantage on uneven ground and their cost on a spreadsheet, and it is why a sett budget is weighted toward hours in a way a slab budget is not.
- Count the units, not only the area, when you estimate laying time.
- Curved and radial work takes longer per square foot than straight courses.
- Cutting around drains, steps and wall bases is where the hours quietly disappear.
- Base preparation on a slope can exceed the paving labor itself.
- A sample panel laid early prevents the most expensive kind of rework.
Buyers comparing sett quantities against installed hours get a truer picture than any material rate gives on its own.
Phasing an Order Across Three Islands
St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John are three markets with three delivery problems. The Virgin Islands Port Authority runs the cargo ports, including Crown Bay on St. Thomas and the Wilfred Bomba Allick Port and Transshipment Center at Krause Lagoon on St. Croix, with the Gallows Bay and Ann E. Abramson marine facilities also serving St. Croix. Tropical Shipping has operated in the territory since 1976 and in January 2024 signed long-term leases with the port authority to rehabilitate and expand facilities at both Crown Bay and the Allick port.
- Choose the landing port by island first, then by carrier schedule.
- Split large orders into phases that match the site’s laying capacity rather than the container’s capacity.
- Confirm any inter-island leg with your carrier before you promise a start date.
- Store phased pallets where they will not be moved twice, because double handling is real money.
Building a Quote You Can Rely On
A quote is only useful if every party is pricing the same thing, which means the schedule has to be explicit.
- State the island, the port and the site access with the areas and depths.
- Separate material, freight, clearance and installation so each can be checked on its own.
- Ask for coverage per pallet so quantities and phases can be planned against real crate counts.
- Name the finish and the format, since both change the rate and the lead time.
The quickest route to a usable number is to put the schedule out for pricing with the areas, depths and island clearly stated.
Give us the areas, the island and the phasing you need, and we will price the stone against them.