Apparently, the Manzanillo customs office has begun reaching out to port users to address the operational chaos caused by last week’s protests by foreign trade officials.
The National Confederation of Mexican Transporters (Conatram) , which primarily represents truck drivers and small and medium-sized trucking lines, issued a statement to its members stating that a meeting was held yesterday, May 19, with port stakeholders and authorities , including the Manzanillo customs office.
“We’ve been told they’re hoping to have up to 20 inspectors to maintain the volumes we had before the emergency, and some are already working, and more will be added in the coming hours and days to reach 20,” Conatram indicated.
There he assured that today (May 20) “we will try to load the 2,700 appointments distributed among all the port terminals (north zone and south zone) and we hope that by Wednesday we will return to the 4,000 that we were loading between Wednesday and Friday.”
According to official data, just over four thousand trucking units enter the port of Manzanillo daily to pick up or unload cargo.
A source close to the Manzanillo customs office, who requested anonymity, told T21 that the inspection authority is currently working with just five inspectors , when on a “normal” day of operation there should be at least 25 inspectors spread out over different hours of the day.
“An inspector typically handles 15 to 20 red notices per day. The problem is that there are many alerts from the Customs Investigation Center, and that entails administrative work because they have to complete the extension reports, in addition to sending emails supporting the alerts. The number of recognitions may not increase, but if the alerts do, it means more work and the same staff,” the source said.
The Manzanillo customs office is the second highest in tax collection in the country, behind only the Nuevo Laredo customs office, which is the largest border crossing for goods with the United States.
Meanwhile, Conatram has also announced that a second meeting will be held on May 23 with authorities and stakeholders from the port of Manzanillo , “to learn about this week’s achievements.”
Customs employees, mostly civilian foreign trade officers, closed access to the port on up to two occasions last week, in protest of alleged poor working conditions and unjustified dismissals since the arrival (April 15) of Captain Rodolfo Torres Chávez as head of the Manzanillo customs office.
Foreign trade, in danger
This Tuesday morning, Sergio Contreras, executive president of the Mexican Business Council for Foreign Trade, Investment and Technology (Comce) , met with the media where he indicated that during the most critical days at the port of Manzanillo, between three and four thousand daily land cargo movements were suspended, causing economic losses estimated at hundreds of millions of pesos per day.
Beyond the direct financial impact, Contreras highlighted the importance of the logistical risk generated by delays in exports and imports, which immediately affected perishable products.
This situation not only compromises the quality of the goods, but also entails contractual penalties , since in many cases the responsibility falls on the exporter.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were particularly vulnerable to this destabilization, as many of them depend directly on the continuous flow of imported inputs and timely fulfillment of their supply chains.
The Comce leader also warned about the bottlenecks generated by the blockages , since the interruption of container movement creates congestion that further complicates operational recovery.
“When a cargo line is blocked, whether import or export, everything stops. It’s a huge logistical challenge,” he explained.
In this regard, he noted that, although the conflict was addressed in a timely manner, the episode serves as a wake-up call.
Comment and follow us on X:@jenna_GH_ / @EnriqueDuRio / @GrupoT21
