Page 12 - World Trade Center - 2017

PORT TO PORT INTERNATIONAL CORP.
DRIVING CAR SALES TO CENTRAL AMERICA
Central America’s Estrategia & Negocios business magazine made note of a spectacular rise in auto imports to El Salvador in its Nov. 17 issue: “After the slump caused by the economic crisis of 2008, the sale of cars in the Salvadoran market has reached unprecedented levels. The boom, however, does not come from the sale of new cars,
Delaware or Florida, taking care of every detail of the logistics process until it reaches its final destination.
“Our client only has to worry about winning the auction, and after that, they place full confidence in us until they receive the car at their destination,” said General Manager Jimmy Avendano. “We measure how we acquire new clients, and most new clients come to us because they’ve been referred.”
The shipping business has change radically since they started shipping cars almost 20 years ago. After 9/11, security tightened at the ports, documentation needed to clear customs changed, and all costs rose dramatically, nearly doubling the cost of shipping. Yet in recent years, the market for used vehicles in Central America has grown so much that several countries in Central America have imposed limits on how recently manufactured these used cars can be.
For almost the entire life of the company, World Trade Center Delaware has helped Port to Port International track changes in international markets that might affect their business.
“World Trade Center Delaware has always been a very important part of our business, keeping us informed about trade missions, international delegations visiting the United States – and through the World Trade Center, we always get important leads about potential business opportunities,” Avendano said.
This is international trade that creates value in both ports.
“Insurance companies use these auctions to recuperate some of the money that they pay out in claims, keeping costs down,” Avendano said. “And at the destination, when cars have to be repaired, all the parties involved are earning money, repairing and painting and providing services. It certainly helps the overall economy.”
but from used imports from the U.S. market.”
Anabel Panayotti, president and CEO of Port to Port International Corp.
One of the companies driving that boom, according to the article, is Port to Port International Corp., the Delaware-based, full-service Non Vessel Operating Common Carrier (NVOCC) that is now one of the nation’s largest shippers
of used vehicles to Central America.
“When we started in August of 1998, we saw the need for a one-stop shop for shipping vehicles to Central America, in which we handle all the logistics – receiving the vehicle, inspecting, prepping it for export, clearing customs and doing all the documentation,” said Anabel Panayotti, president and CEO of the shipping company.
But that is only part of the door-to-door service that Port to Port provides. A client can purchase a car at an auction in the United States with the assurance that Port to Port International can take it directly from the auction block and tow it to shipping yards in either
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