[ Flota Mercante Grancolombiana(FMG) Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary ]

With a special ceremony took place in the historic “Quinta de Bolivar
” on Friday June 7 at 3:30 p.m. the Board of Directors and all person
el of Flota Mercante Grancolombiana commemorated 50 years of its found
ation. The Shipping Line represents the first successful experiment of
integration amongst Latin American nations accomplished by Colombia,
Venezuela and Ecuador, 17 years before ALALC(The Association of Latin
American Countries) and 22 before the Andean Group.
On June 8th 1946 in the same “Quinta de Bolivar” in Bogota the three
countries represented by the Colombia President Alberto Lieras Camarg
o and delegates from Venezuelan President Romulo Betancourt and Ecuado
r’s Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra signed the Official Document of Constru
ction of the new Shipping Line.
The creation of the new enterprise was a reply from the three countrie
s to the situation suffered by them after W.W.Ⅱ characterized by the
absence of regular maritime transportation services and the difficulti
es for obtaining fair freight levels for the export of their products
and the import of the Raw Materials needed for the development of the
new industries in the three countries.
Flota Mercante Grancolombiana started operations in the second semeste
r of 1947, transporting during that year 189,439 freight Tons. In 1951
the mark of One Million Tons was surpassed and in 1978 it achieved th
e highest mark in all its history transporting a total of 4,888,417 To
ns. During the 49 years of operation the Line has moved close to 100 m
illion freight Tons representing an income of more than 6 billion US
dollars.
During the last 50 years many things have changed: The old Breakbulk c
argo freighters evolved into multipurpose ships and then into full con
tainer vessels. The frequency of services changed from monthly to week
ly, thus multiplying the offer of transportation services to the clien
ts. The number of ports of call was reduced substantially to offer bet
ter frequency and optimize the level of costs associated with the serv
ices. The containerization of cargo permitted increased efficiency in
the port operations, reduced time stay in the ports and consequentiall
y better compliance with the published itineries. From an independent
operation in all traffics, they became joint services with other Shipp
ing Lines, which permitted the rationalization of fixed costs and the
optimization in the use of the ships. From a Port to Port service, the
company evolved Integral Transportation solutions combining different
modes of transportation to deliver the cargo in the customers premise
s instead of at the Ship’s side as in the past. From public ports, Co
lombia evolved into Privately Operated ports.
Flota Mercante Grancolombina countinues to be leader shipping line in
the Colombian market and one of the most important in Latin America. I
t offers services linking the 70 main ports associated with the extern
al trade of Colombia and Latin America. Its operation is carried out i
n 10 regular traffics using 40 ships supplied by Grancolombiana and it
s associates, performing 30 sailings per month from Colombian ports. G
rancolombians also has agencies in 250 cities in 42 countries in the w
orld.
During the half century of existence, Grancolombiana has had an import
ant role in the promotion of exports of Colombia and Latin America and
has become a stabilizing factor in the level of freights to and from
Colombia. Grancolombiana has also participated and promoted developmen
t in other activities such as Container Depots, Air Rail and Land Tran
sportation, Multimodal Transportation, Port Operation and the operatio
n of its private port CONTECAR in Cartagena Colombia.