Over the length of our life, LBH Colombia has focused exclusively on attending ships at Colombian ports on behalf of our clients, mostly charterers. Almost two thirds of our operations have been dedicated to serving coal shipments, a natural trend given the background of its founders, but also the country´s potential. Never lacking challenges, we have organized the structure with a priority to service top quality local and global clients by top quality global minded employees.
However as the pandemic broke in early 2020 we saw an opportunity to expand our service portfolio and assist shipowners in husbandry affairs for their ships., as a separate business division. Out of this, our new Logistics Division was born; applying the strict quality performance that we use for our agency service, and which is very much appreciated by our customers, now the Logistics division was empowered to grow and make it possible for LBH Colombia to evolve into different fields: we applied for a license to become an international freight forwarder, and fortunately all formalities were completed and permission granted last July. We are finalizing registration with all major shipping lines calling Colombian ports, and planning a strategy to penetrate this market, always with a view to perform in observance of our quality standards.
Thus the new Logistics division is ready to formalize our intention to diversify our service portfolio and become a more comprehensive ship agency in Colombia, one on which importers or exporters may rely to solve problems or make their life easier, facilitating the trade and contributing into the country´s overall growth. As with the ship agency services, this division is confronting already with the many challenges of the current supply chain, insinuating a long and bumpy road ahead. A field no doubt, full of opportunities we are ready and enthusiastic to work for.
As it has been tradition with LBH Colombia, we prefer inner promotion than external assistance for this new development. Jose Orozco who worked in the past in the liner business, and with us as mnager for Buenaventura operations, has been setting up the new activity, with the charming attitude of Jennifer Herrera and soon to be appointed Maria Paula Rodriguez coming from our FDA area. Many headowners, technical managers and ship captains already appreciate the dedicated style imposed by the team with discipline for the husbandry services. Becoming a reliable freight forwarding agent is their new target.