Hi there.

I have written to some of you who are based or just travelled through Buenos Aires, but am also posting as others may be able to reply.

I am shipping from Montreal to Buenos Aires and have been quotes US$1300 of port fees (obligatory) and US$1000 for a local customs broker. Can you confirm whether these are normal fees?

I would greatly appreciate advice as we are meant to ship on 1st November.
We have also been in touch with others who have not used local agents, some have found the experience difficult recently. Can you thus confirm whether an agent is necessary for Argentina?

Many thanks in advance

It seems very steep to me. You would be very well advised to get in contact with the good honored xavier of Dakar Motos. His wife helps brokering now and then I heard.

If you have time and are on the cheap, you can do it yourself. Read our blog here.

always good is to read Karin's write-up on this.

Adventurous greetings,
Coen

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- On the road since 2003 in a vintage Land Cruiser

Txs Coen and Karin, once more!
(PS Just PM'ed you on ExPo!)

i have read its very steep to ship in here ,i am shipping out from here right at the moment ,i am doing my own customs clearance ,the only hassle so far is getting your passport copied and verified by a notary (crock of shit), i would ship into varaparaiso in chile ,its just over the hill

just send you a pm back, with quotes from Malaysia, not all that bad.

I would prefer to do it myself in Buenos Aires. Just take your time and never lose your nerves. Do any of you speak a little spanish?

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- On the road since 2003 in a vintage Land Cruiser

Yes we both speak Spanish (though a bit rusty I have to admit), that should help.
Coen, txs for the PM. You got good prices from Malaysia!

We are feeling more confident about shipping into BA and are in touch with some of you there already. Thank you for the pieces of advice, replies and contacts. Contonine to keep coming in. We are making good progress.

It will be a pleasure to meet up in BA, Argentina or anywhere else on the road. Stay in touch,

Isa & John

I just come back from the Grimaldi office in Buenos Aires and the port.

3 years ago, i shared a container and getting things sorted cost us one week and 600 USD, which was already unjustified. The "free parking" used to be 5 days, so you had time to do it on yourself, even tho clerks were not very cooperative with foreigners.

Today, getting the vehicules out cost 1360 dollars. They changed the 5 days rule to include non worked days like the weekend. Since they need one day to unload, unless the ship arrives on Monday, you just dont have enough time to do it alone, getting an agent to accelerate the process is simply compulsary. You will then have to add 320 dollars to the 1360. Total damage : 1680 dollars to use a crane to move the container and get the vehicules out. Add to this that if you want to do it on yourself, you will need to give a "warranty" of 5000 USD to your agent till the process is finished, payable in cash. Paying in pesos will cost you 3% more than in dollars or euros.

This is a plain nonsense, totally uncorrelated to real costs, i would strongly advise you to ship to Brazil, Uruguay or Chili, Buenos Aires has become simply unaffordable unless you send a container with 10 motorcycles and share the cost between all the people, but then good luck with the organisation.

Here are the details as of 10/28/2009 for a 20 ft container :

Port charges :
Handling (5 dias) : 196,60 USD
AGPxTN4 : 15 USD
Desonsolidado : 450 USD
Cargo ISPS : 8 USD
Gate : 25 USD
Total : 618 USD
IVA : 62 USD
Total+IVA : 880 USD

Agent charges :
THC : 221 USD
TOLL : 90 USD
BL : 35 USD
Handling : 25 USD
Delivery order : 45 USD
Logistic fee : 25 USD
Gastos Gravados+IVA : 169 USD
Total : 480 USD

Total compulsary : 1360

Optional but compulsary due to lack of time : Agent broker : 320 USD

Total of total of total :1680 USD/1142 Euros.

OUCH!!
I have just read about your costings, not good reading.
We are in BA waiting for our bike which should be here today/tomorrow. It is coming over from Cape Town as part of a groupage load in a 40 foot container, so hopefully our charges won't be so high.

South African side costs:
ZAR 2900, about £240

We are using a Shipping Agent in BA to organise everything for us this side.

SSL Consolidation Service SA
Bernardo de Irigoyen 380/10


So far our costs this side have been:
Desconsolidacion US$ 181.50
Manejo Documentacion US$ 96.80
AGP (Tasas a las cargas) US$ 7.26
Total US$ 285.56

They have told us that there is no charge for the Customs but we will have to pay costs for the warehouse where the container will be unpacked. Still waiting for the email with the final charges but will post them back here when I get them.

Kev & Lorraine Hatchett

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RTW Jan 2009 - Aug 2012. Currently in Europe waiting for the next ride
www.takingthelongwayhome.co.uk

Bonjour Vorteks,
Hi Kev & Lorraine,

Thank you for the detailed pricing. It helps a lot.
Hoping to get Cruz ok and a short stay for her in the warehouse as this seems to be pricey!

We will be in BA on 13th Nov and Cruz towards the end of the month.
Thank you once more for posting and please keep updates.

Looking forward to meeting you.
Happy travels meanwhile!

Isa & John

I ll stay in Buenos Aires for a while, you are welcome to come by for a , coffee and share experiences, ideas, addresses...

D'accord, super!

We have just taken a monthly rental in Palermo, BA from 13th Nov. Will be in touch and happy to go for a drink and chat!

Hi Vorteks,
We are in BA also, in a hostel in San Telmo. Not sure for how much longer. If you are close we could meet up.
Hi xfiltrate,
have tried your number a cpl of times without success, you must be a very busy man!
Our mobile phone number here:
1138509394

Kev & Lorraine

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RTW Jan 2009 - Aug 2012. Currently in Europe waiting for the next ride
www.takingthelongwayhome.co.uk

Hmmm. Sorry to hear of your bad luck. You might have met the wrong guy. Agents tend to calculate in their favor and might make up posts that sound logical. We had a such a good experience and I don't know why one time it would be different from the other but it does.

I don't know about Chili, but Uruguay has simple procederes as has Buenos Aires in my eyes. Brazil should be avoided at all times. We have been warned in advance by Brazilians before shipping out of Malaysia and we have met overlanders who got stuck in the Brazilian bureaucratic system. 10 days it has cost them....

My advice, ship to Buenos Aires, take your time and don't hire an agent!

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- On the road since 2003 in a vintage Land Cruiser

Hi all,
Update on the costings.
After finding out ourselves about the ships arrival here in BA, and that our container had been emptied, (our shipping agent hadn't been in contact with us ) we set off for the E.M.B.A. (customs) office to arrange all the paperwork to retrieve the bike. We sat in their waiting room from 10:30 until all the paperwork was done at 17:30!!
As stated earlier, no charge for customs.

E.M.B.A
Avda. de los Inmigrantes y Avda. Ramon S Castillo (1104)
(In the cruise ship terminal)

We picked the bike up today from Gemez II warehouse with no problems. Office staff were very friendly and helpful as were the customs guys (who let us reassemble the bike in the warehouse), and no shortage of help from the guys in the yard helping us reassemble the bike.
We didn't even have to get rid of the crate ourselves.

Gemez
Avda. Ramon S Castillo
Sector Arenero de la Darsena F
Calle 14 (1104)

Breakdown of warehouse charges, all in Pesos:

Entrega de Mercandarias LCL = 740
S.I.M = 95
Recupero Gastos de Puerto LCL = 190
Recupero Ivetra Importacion LCL = 20
Resolution 13331/02 LCL = 75
IVA = 235
Total = 1,355

Heading for Cordoba tomorrow, Viedma for the meet and Ushuaia.

Kev & Lorraine Hatchett

__________________
RTW Jan 2009 - Aug 2012. Currently in Europe waiting for the next ride
www.takingthelongwayhome.co.uk

Hi all,

So we are in the week preceding the arrival of the container in Buenos Aires.
Here are some questions I hope you can advise on. Thank you.

1) Is the warehouse compulsory?
We are hoping to drive the car out of the port straight away.

2) Can we be there when the container is being opened?
The car does not pass through without us putting some weight at the back (we had three men putting their weights on the back in order for the car to fit into the container when loading) - because of the roof tent, which is carbon fiber, and thus fragile. (even with tires deflated)

So far, here are the costs for a '20 container 1 vehicle + personal effects:

Step 1: The shipping cie in BA, Mediterranean MSC (in $USD)
River plate toll: $90
THC destino: $140
Logistics fees: $25
Delivery order: $73 ($60+$12,60 tx)
* Handling: $35
* Carta de garantia/Escribano: $20 (paid 60 pesos)
TOTAL: US $383

Same day transfer made to the shipping cie to their account in a specific bank (far from the office of course).

* Those items do not seem to appear for all shipping cies, or could simply be new. The carta de guarantia had to be done through a public notary, the escribano.


We thus finished the paperwork with the shipping cie on Tuesday, and now have EMBA and TRP to deal with. It seems EMBA does not want to deal with us until the day after the car arrives (meant to arrive Thursday, so Friday with EMBA)... this is perhaps to extend our stay, we are trying to circumvent this.
3) Does anyone know about this?
We know some were able to do it before, but this is not recent - perhaps it has changed.

Thank you for your quick advice.

John & Isa