Container Trade: Colombia More Expensive

BY LBC STAFF

The cost of exporting and importing containers of cargo in Colombia has soared, according to a Latin Business Chronicle analysis of new data from The World Bank’s Doing Business 2012 report.

While the cost of exporting a container on average has grown 2.4 percent in Latin America, costs grew 28.2 percent in Colombia. Meanwhile, the costs of importing a container jumped 66.5 percent in Colombia compared with 3.9 percent in Latin America overall.

In both cases, Colombia posted the highest increases in Latin America, beating Brazil, which has also has seen strong increases the past few years. The new prices also make Colombia the second-most expensive in Latin America after Venezuela – a position previously held by Brazil.

The strong increase in prices in Colombia was caused by a combination of factors, including devastating floods, availability of trucks, fuel surcharges and  driver strikes, says Rita Ramalho, Program Manager of the Enterprise Analysis of the World Bank Group. “There has also been more moderate increases in customs broker charges and port fees, but the transportation cost changes explain the majority of the changes,” she says.

A comparison with the Latin Infrastructure Index from Latin Business Chronicle shows that the countries that offer the best prices and require the fewest documents and time to export and import containers are also the ones with the best transport infrastructure in Latin America.

EXPORTING PRICES

Meanwhile, Chile is no longer the least expensive country in terms of exporting containers. That honor now goes to...