The cargo business federations Colfecar and Fedetranscarga sent requests to the Ministry of Transportation and the Superintendence of Transportation due to deficiencies in the receipt of empty containers in some maritime terminals of the port of Buenaventura.
The unions assure that some shipping companies once they arrive at the different port terminals empty containers are not being carriedwhich is generating a large backlog in the external yards, which in turn prevents the yards or port terminals from receiving the empty containers from the carriers.
(Read: Global container crisis hits even smuggling).
Thus, a process of receipt of an empty container, which should take a couple of hours, is taking between 3 and 6 days.
Colfecar in the letter addressed to the Ministry of Transportation indicated that this problem is reflected in all the actors involved in the operation.
For example, it is presenting “significant rise in import land freight due to the limited availability of vehicles and their low rotation, who in turn complain, and with good reason, that they are literally being used as warehouses”the federation said.
In addition, this problem extends to container yards, according to Colfecar, as they do not have some minimum requirements to provide the service, which also slow down your operation.
For example, some of these centers do not have special areas to stop vehicles, which collapses mobility from the city.
In addition, these centers must have the necessary equipment for unloading or loading containers. “In some yards, when their machines present mechanical difficulties, the operation is immediately paralyzed”, Colfecar stated in the document.
(What’s more: Imports: what should companies take into account on the subject?).
Fedetrascarga, in turn, conceives this problem and adds that it has become unmanageable and asks the state entities to “carry out a contingency plan that allows mitigating the impact generated by the bottlenecks that occur due to the limited quotas ”.
Likewise, the federation indicates that the “logistics operation created by some ports requests to unload the merchandise from the container, take the container to a yard 7 km away for inspection and subsequent return, which generates more extra transportation costs.”
Given the situation, the associations request exempt cargo companies the responsibility of not delivering a container within the established 10 days and the fines that this derives.
In this regard, Gustavo Florez, general manager (e) of the Regional Port Society of Buenaventura, one of the largest terminals in the sector, assures that it is a problem in some terminals and not theirs.
“SPB does not have storage problems because it has a sufficient installed capacity of 1.5 million TEUs and we have an enormous infrastructure capacity in docks, cranes, yards, equipment, empty storage and we are providing the corresponding service with the contracts we have.Florez stated.
Portfolio consulted the different ports of Colombia and they assure that they do not have this shortcoming.
(What’s more: They denounce the evasion of US$100 million on the Venezuela-Colombia border).
OTHER PROBLEMS
Colfecar, on the other hand, requested a intervention by the Superintendency Of transport. “Logistical cost overruns have been transferred to the prices of raw materials and finished products that we Colombians buy, added to the devaluation rate that has been oscillating up to $4,000, maritime freight rates have had a significant increase, going from US$2,000 to US$14,000 and US$22,000, without a doubt, all of this will continue to increase the rate of inflation this year.”
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