Ternium Colombia and Ternium Siderurgica de Caldas were granted this new certification by the DIAN (National Directorate of Taxes and Customs,) which means that the company is considered a safe and trusted trade operator in the international supply chain.
With this achievement, Ternium successfully adds another landmark to its continuous search for being at the forefront of the international market, modifying and implementing tools and controls within the company to keep guaranteeing global safety and better reliability in all the supply chain.
Through these certifications, the public customs entities acknowledge that Ternium Colombia and Ternium Siderurgica de Caldas internal processes are reliable and guarantee the safety of the supply chain, which creates a more dynamic flow regarding import operations of raw material.
Besides, as detailed by Gonzalo Cuervo, Institutional Manager at Techint Colombia, “it speeds the availability of raw materials since the certified company has the benefit of automatic authorization of products by the customs office. This speeds up the acquisition of raw material and allows to have the product available as soon as possible.”
It also offers more safety to Ternium Colombia and Ternium Siderurgica de Caldas clients, since they know we have safe logistics processes that have been inspected and approved by the corresponding government entities.
The Importance of Being Granted the Authorized Economic Operator Certification
The list of benefits is large. Besides what was previously mentioned, the following matters are highlighted too:
- No anticipated affidavits have to be submitted.
- Customs duties are consolidated more easily.
- We will assign an Operations Officer to speed up the nationalization paperwork.
- We will get preference in physical and documentation inspections of the loads.
How Ternium Achieved the AEO Certification
Certifications were achieved by complying with a validation process before the DIAN and the Anti-Narcotics Police, from the Decree 3568 of 2011, complying with the safety requirements for importers of the article 4-1 of the resolution 15 of 2016 and resolution 067 of 2016. It should be noted that, as of being two different corporate names, both processes were developed independently.
For that, we improved:
- Risk analysis and administration
- Safety of containers and other loading units
- Control of physical access
- Personnel safety
- Process safety
- Physical security
- Information Technology Security
- Security Training
- Awareness of threats and other tasks
In the case of Ternium Atlántico, we will start the process in July of 2021, as the industrial center already complies with the requirement of operating for at least three years.
We Are Part of this Certification
The certification is permanent, with inspection for validation of the requirements every two years by the DIAN and the Anti-Narcotics Police, which makes for a new management system. Our commitment is vital to guarantee and improve the physical security controls of the international supply chain.
We can all contribute to the strict compliance of duties such as compliance of documented procedures, report of incidents or possible incidents on time that may affect the physical security of the load and the facilities of the company, performing risk analysis permanently that may affect the physical safety of the company, and creating improvement plans to strengthen this new management system.
For example, the Quality Assurance Department will permanently perform the internal and themed audits which purpose is identifying gaps and establishing corrective and preventive improvement plans.
For Yanet Acevedo, head of Quality Assurance, “additional to the benefits granted by the legal entities, the implementation of this certification has brought improvements and contributions, as it helped us strengthen physical security in matters such as: access control of visitors and own, surveilling cameras system, perimeter fencing, formalization and documentation of procedures for identification and report of security incidents, and contingency and continuity plans.”
By mid-2019, more than 31,000* companies in the world had this certification. Out of them, less than 400 were from South America.
In Ternium, we want to be at the forefront because we know that any company that wants to be relevant in international trade and strengthen its dynamic globally must have the Authorized Economic Operator certification. We already achieved that.
We seek to be a strategically for our clients by providing a quick, transparent, and safe trade that guarantees efficiency in the processes that are directly related to imports.
Actions from the Quality Assurance Department Won’t Stop
Acevedo mentions that “We are progressing in the Accreditation process of our lab in the Manizales plant under the ISO 17025:2017 standard, that looks for the implementation and certification of the management system by the ONAC (National Accreditation Body of Colombia) in order to get valid results in the chemical, mechanical and measurement tests to guarantee our clients the Quality Assurance of the products we certify upon delivery.”