Maersk to cease operations in Guinea-Bissau

As you may be aware, Maersk Bissau S.A.R.L has been in a legal deadlock since April 2020. After numerous attempts to solve the situation with the local government, we still find ourselves at an impasse. As a result, we regret to inform you that after 20 years of continuously serving our customers in Guinea Bissau we have made the difficult decision to cease our operations in the country. The minimum conditions to operate and serve our customers in a compliant way is not currently in place and as a consequence we will cease all our operations in Guinea Bissau.

Maersk Bissau S.A.R.L will cease all our operations on dd/mm/yyyy or by dd/mm/yyyy.

This decision has not been taken lightly and we understand that this will have an impact on your business and supply chain. We have put in place contingency plans to try to ensure that we minimise any disruption to your business caused by this withdrawal. The closure of our business in Guinea Bissau means that we will no longer be able to serve your shipping and logistics needs in and out of the country. However, we are doing everything we can to ensure this transition is smooth and should you require logistical services in other locations, we will be first in line to serve you.

Our key priority is to ensure that all commitments are honoured before closure. This is how we will proceed:

New bookings
To ensure that we handle your existing business with us as swiftly as possible during this transition, we have made the decision to not accept any new import and export bookings out of Guinea Bissau as of xxx.

Existing bookings
For our existing import bookings, we will conduct business as usual until we have processed all your bookings.

With the aim of serving you as best we can, please also note that our offices will remain open to support the various processes connected to your bookings. You will still be able to come in to collect invoices, process payments, place delivery orders, collect bill of ladings and anything else pertaining to your existing booking with us.

Should there be any updates to your booking, we will reach out to you directly, as we do today.

Our team will continue to process and finalise your dealings with us as swiftly as possible, but we will need your support to ensure this is done promptly. We kindly ask that you collect your cargo and return the empty containers directly to the terminal in a timely manner. This will help our team process your booking more seamlessly with minimal delays.

If you have any questions or if would like to know more about the situation, you can also contact our local office, or reach out directly to:

• Boubacar Telly Beavogui (Country Manager)
  Email: telly.beavogui@maersk.com
  Tel: +245955397762
• Mamadou Moustapha Bah (Country Customer Experience Manager)
  Email: Mamadou.moustapha.bah@maersk.com
  Tel: +245956203716

We also have a dedicated WhatsApp group where we are sharing up to date information with customers as the situation develops. If you are not on this group yet, please reach out to us and we will add you.