Moving To Ba - Import Container

[splattermatter]

I just moved a partial container from the USA to Argentina and can give you real insight into the new process that just became law...
Your stuff will be safe in the warehouse...don't listen to the horror stories.
You will experience some problems with securing a "seguro de cauccion." This will be your main issue.
This process is quite corrupt...You will be charged 5 usd per kilo and you must pay in dollars.
The process cannot just be handled by your agent you will need to be expressly involved.

 

[Girino]

I am surprised to read such horror stories. Our move went swiftly (minus a broken plate).
One trip to the city to pay the company handling things here and present documents and paperworks.
One trip to stamp papers at some ministry (my husband is a returning Citizen, this stamp was needed for tax exemption).
One trip at the port the day our stuff was cleared, then the flete (small truck) brought my husband and our stuff at home.

Really, it was perfect. We paid according to the original estimate before the move (even slightly less due to favorable change). I think we spent about USD1750 to clear custom and USD 150 have 4 pallets delivered on our sidewalk (we had to unload the flete ourselves).
But, again, unloading a container is more expensive than unloading 4 pallets, and transporting a container to your final destination means to rent a driver with a heavy truck.

The company we used on the Argentinian side is LiberLine (http://www.liberline.com.ar/). We used an Italian company to load our stuff in Italy (we took care of the packing & pallet assembling ourselves) and the sea transport, and that was another USD 2700.
As other said, given that in Argentina the corruption level is VERY high, it is essential to have a smart dealer for the custom clearance.
Make it very clear with them that you don't want to pay any extra (i.e. in their quote they should include an allowance to take care of "issues" at custom).
Note: we paid the equivalent of these amounts in pesos and not in USD.

Our stuff was loaded on April 28th, left from Genoa after about a week, and arrived in Buenos Aires after 22 days. Then it took another week to get to our place.
We received our stuff on June 12th. Overall, 6 weeks. This happened this year.
I am very happy with the service!

 

[splattermatter]

I paid
$1650 for 3 pallets from portland oregon to buenos aires this includes packing, shipping and warehouse at Murchison
$500 USD for aduanas BS(roughly)
$900 for the seguro de cauccion which I am still waiting be to reembursed for

I went to the puerto 4 times.....egad