On August 10, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake with its epicenter near San José del Palmar, in Chocó, shook southwestern Colombia for nearly two minutes. Buenaventura was left with damaged roads, interrupted services and a human toll the region still carries. For foreign trade the effect was immediate: the main Pacific port shifted into restricted operation exactly when it is hardest to replace.
A decisive share of what Colombia buys comes in through that port. Between January and May, of the 31.3 billion dollars the country imported, 8.14 billion cleared customs in Buenaventura. Close to 60% of the coffee Colombia ships to the world also leaves through it. When a node with that weight slows down, the adjustment does not stay at the terminal. It moves to warehouses, to contracts and to the bottom line of anyone who imports or exports.
The Buenaventura port earthquake hit a hub that was already stretched
Two things are worth separating. The earthquake is the new event, but Buenaventura’s congestion did not start with it. Through 2025 the port grew more than 12% in cargo and close to 20% in containers, according to the Sociedad Portuaria, and that growth arrived without the road infrastructure to sustain it. By early 2026 there were already long lines on the access corridor, hauler blockades and disputes over late-return charges on empty containers.
Between January and May, Colombia imported 31.3 billion dollars, and 8.14 billion came in through Buenaventura. Close to a quarter of everything the country bought moved through that port.
One figure explains much of the problem: Buenaventura is the country’s largest container importer, and of every four that come in, three leave empty. Returning those empties was already a permanent bottleneck before the quake. The earthquake landed on top of that strained base, which is why recovery is not a return to a comfortable normal. The previous normal was tight too, and a yard already operating at its limit has little room to absorb the backlog left by a shutdown of several days.
Where the cost is moving
With operations restricted, import cargo sits longer at the terminal. That extra dwell time turns into storage that the importer pays for. On top of it come the charges for containers that cannot be returned on time, a cost the cargo owner would normally negotiate with the shipping line and that becomes harder to contain in the middle of an emergency.
Road transport has its own version of the problem. A truck that misses its loading appointment because of the lines arrives late and adds an unproductive trip that someone ends up paying for. Fedetranscarga has insisted that without an orderly clearing of the empties, the funnel feeds itself.
The DIAN suspended customs deadlines until August 26, which avoided penalties for missed terms during the most critical days. That measure eases the administrative pressure, but it does not clear the yard. By September, unit reception was still rationed at some yards, with schemes of around 50 vehicles a day and cutoff dates to prioritize inspections.
The Caribbean detour creates winners and losers
When Buenaventura gets complicated, cargo looks for another door. Hapag-Lloyd offered clients the option to change the destination port to Cartagena, and CMA CGM said it was still monitoring the restrictions on land access. That shift reads differently depending on where you sit in the chain.
| Player | Effect | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Importers via the Pacific | Loses | Longer dwell time, storage and detention charges on their account. |
| Coffee exporters | Loses | Close to 60% of the bean leaves through Buenaventura and shipping windows tighten. |
| Haulers | Loses | Lines, missed loading appointments and unproductive trips. |
| Caribbean ports (Cartagena first) | Wins | They capture diverted volume they would not see under normal conditions. |
| Shipping lines | Mixed | Freight rates get pushed up, but they face altered schedules and closer scrutiny of detention charges. |
For an importer whose goods end up in the center or north of the country, rerouting through the Caribbean can even shorten the inland leg. For anyone whose operation is built around the Pacific, the detour means rebuilding the land logistics, renegotiating rates and taking on times that were not in the plan. Coffee is the most delicate case, with corridors like Buga-Buenaventura, Calarcá-Ibagué and Manizales-Fresno affected and a product where meeting the date weighs on the relationship with the buyer.
What we are watching at Fenix
The September picture is one of gradual, uneven recovery. TCBUEN reported that it is resuming operations progressively and under stricter safety conditions, while Analdex asked the government for concrete steps: allow nighttime circulation on the Buenaventura road, set up weekly plans to clear the empties and open clear channels to review storage and detention charges caused by the emergency. None of those pieces gets solved overnight.
At Fenix we are tracking closely how yard times, appointment availability and freight behavior toward the Caribbean evolve, because those are the variables that define the real cost of each shipment in these weeks. The Buenaventura port earthquake tested infrastructure that was already running with no slack, and the way the port gets unblocked will set the foreign-trade conditions for the southwest for the rest of the year.
Do you have cargo moving through Buenaventura or need to weigh a Caribbean alternative? At Fenix we build the option that best protects your cost and your timing.
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- Semana: Backed-up cargo and rising freight, the aftermath of the earthquake in Buenaventura
- Infobae: Empty-container gridlock in Buenaventura keeps hitting cargo transport
- Analdex: Open letter on the logistics situation in Buenaventura
- Visión Marítima: The earthquake pushes shipping lines to evaluate cargo diversions
- El País: Buenaventura and its growth of 12% in cargo and close to 20% in containers
