Dear friends,

Colombia completes a month of strike and protests against the government, which has generated public order problems in several cities. 

The region most affected by this situation is the Pacific coast. The port of Buenaventura is completely blocked, which has generated overload storage in the terminals.

All shipping companies suspended their services to Buenaventura (I forward information from Hapag Lloyd, but this same situation occurs with CMA, MSC, Cosco, Maersk, HSUD).

If you have cargo to ship to Colombia at the moment, please send it to ports in the Atlantic coast (Cartagena, Barranquilla, Santa Marta, Turbo).

We will be notifying you once the situation normalizes.

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Buenaventura Stoppage due to Colombia situation 

Given the ongoing political situation in Colombia, now in week 4 our operations in Buenaventura have reached a stand still.

Demonstrations, work stoppage, road blockages to/from Buenaventura resulted in heavy port congestion, over capacity and closures in the terminals at the port of Buenaventura.

Effective immediately,

1. We will suspend and cancel all booking acceptance to the port of Buenaventura. 

2. All containers enroute to Buenaventura via the Panama Canal (Atlantic) westbound will diverted to final destination Cartagena, the terminals are working normally. Alternatively, upon your request we can offer Change of Destination (COD) to other ports on the Atlantic (Barranquilla, Santa Marta) or barge connection to Barrancabermeja, subject to local customs authorization and timeframes and applicable charges.

3. We will endeavor to divert Pacific origin containers enroute from (NAWC, MX and SAWC) to the port of Cartagena. All other bookings from these origins will be cancelled.

4. For all inbound shipments unable to be cancelled at this stage, or enroute which require  alternate port stoppage, we will announce details and charges incurred for later handling to Buenaventura (to be confirmed per voyage effected).

5. We do provide weekly emergency cabotage service from Buenaventura to Cartagena for HL import containers stranded in the port

We are monitoring the situation daily and do apologize in advance for this inconvenience.

We do expect to resume full operations to Buenaventura once the situation in Colombia subsides

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Cordial Saludo / Kind Regards

Wilber Celis

Managing Director

FRACHT COLOMBIA S.A.S.
Tel.:                +57 1 7433599 Ext. 120
Cel.:                +57 312 5215455
Email :             wilber.celis@co.fracht.com
Web:               www.fracht.com
Bogotá D.C. – Colombia 

The spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the associated disease COVID-19 (Corona pandemic) can lead to disruptions in transport processes. The Customer is aware that delays may occur as a result of the Corona pandemic and that this may mean that delivery dates cannot be met and that unexpected additional costs may arise which were not calculated when the contract was concluded. The freight forwarder is obliged to avoid or reduce these as far as possible. In accordance with this, the customer is obliged to reimburse the additional costs. The freight forwarder shall not be liable for exceeding the delivery deadline caused by the Corona pandemic.

La propagación del virus SARS-CoV-2 y la enfermedad asociada COVID-19 (pandemia de Corona) puede provocar interrupciones en los procesos de transporte. El Cliente es consciente de que pueden producirse demoras como resultado de la pandemia de Corona y que esto puede significar que no se pueden cumplir las fechas de entrega y que pueden surgir costos adicionales inesperados que no se calcularon cuando se concluyó el contrato. El agente de carga está obligado a evitar o reducir estos en la medida de lo posible. De acuerdo con esto, el cliente está obligado a reembolsar los costos adicionales. El agente de carga no será responsable por exceder el plazo de entrega causado por la pandemia de Corona.