COLOMBIA: Largest container ship arrival to Buenaventura

The arrival occurred along the Pacific coast of Colombia, in the Buenaventura Port cluster: The terminal Puerto Aguadulce marked the record when attending the “APL Esplanade” of 368.82 meters of length, 51 meters of beam and 13,892 TEUs of capacity

The ship “APL Esplanade” of CMA CGM, set a record when arriving at the terminal of Aguadulce, in the port of Buenaventura, to become the largest ship to land in Colombia. With a length of 368.82 meters and 51 meters of beam, it is the largest vessel to arrive at a terminal in Colombia with a capacity of 13,892 TEUs.  The ship from Asia is scheduled to continue its journey to other ports in South America.

The General Manager of Puerto Aguadulce, Miguel Abisambra informed the media that “For Puerto Aguadulce, receiving this type of vessel is an honor and a great responsibility. We continually work under our vision to be a strategic ally of the Colombian industry. Late last year. we receive in our port the ship with the largest capacity that has docked in Colombia, and now we receive the largest one, confirming that Puerto Aguadulce is a terminal with global service standards, technology, infrastructure and security “,

APL ESPLANADE “navigates in the Asia-Central America (ACSA 1) service of CMA CGM that connects East Asia with Central and South America.

Despite the arrival of mega-ships to the pacific ports of Colombia, the Buenaventura port cluster has been affected by the discontinuation of the tranships of the EuroSAL, a service with channel crossing and destination in Northern Europe.  Transshipment has shifted to the port of Posorja in Ecuador. The inability to guarantee the necessary draft in the access channel, as well as special alliances with the lines and terminals, decreased the volume of transshipment and ships calling Buenaventura. Furthermore, the construction of Puerto Solo is bound to widen the supply of port services leading to the cannibalization of cargo.