You are Paula Cifuentes, head of legal and contracts at Constructora Cumbrera in Bogotá. Today, Wednesday 15 April 2026, your cement supplier has entered insolvency and left 120 workers with nothing to pour. On Friday the 17th you must put before the board the damages figure Cumbrera will take into the negotiation.
The situation
Cumbrera bought 2,000 tonnes of cement from Cementera del Calizal for COP 800 million (COP 400,000 a tonne) for a 15,000 m² logistics centre on the west side of the city, with the concrete structure 40% built. Eight hundred tonnes arrived; 1,200 are missing. The contract has no performance bond and no bank guarantee, and any dispute goes to international arbitration under ICC rules.
Hernán Rubiano, the site manager, expects a 60-day stall until another supplier delivers. The 120 workers stay on the payroll at an average cost of COP 2.5 million a month each, benefits included. The contract with the end client, an e-commerce operator, carries a penalty of COP 100 million for every month of late delivery, counted after a 30-day grace period.
Cementera del Calizal is offering COP 150 million, payable in 30 days, plus rights in the liquidation of its assets. Its representative in the insolvency has already warned that an outsized demand would end the conversation. Germán Ulloa, Cumbrera's outside counsel, sees it the other way: a figure that would stand up in arbitration carries weight at the table. The board has set aside a fund of COP 500 million for the whole response.