Tropical storm “Alberto” , which made landfall in the northeast of the country this Thursday morning, has caused various effects in the northeastern area of Mexico. Speaking specifically of trade, transportation and logistics, it has already begun to generate bottlenecks on the main routes that connect with the United States, the country’s main trading partner.
The port of Laredo, Texas , with its counterparts Colombia (Nuevo León) and Nuevo Laredo (Tamaulipas) is the main commercial exchange point with the United States, where between 15 thousand and 18 thousand transport units are operated daily in both directions . This border port is mainly fed by the units that circulate on the Saltillo – Monterrey highway and highway , until now one of the routes most affected by this storm.
According to Javier Cendejas Meneses, director of Institutional Relations at Dicex , although customs on the border of Colombia and Laredo have not suffered major damage, the main damage that has left transporters stranded is observed on the Saltillo-Monterrey and Nuevo highways. Laredo-Monterrey , where a long bottleneck has formed due to an accident in which a truck and its box overturned.
“According to information shared by the partners, a section of the Monterrey-Saltillo highway and highway is closed, so the necessary precautions must be taken to inform customers that there may be delays in import and export activities,” confirmed to this medium Rómulo Mejía, delegate of the National Chamber of Cargo Transportation (Canacar) in Monterrey.
In addition, Demetrio Tamez, vice president of the Northeast Zone of Canacar, assured that with the closure of these two routes there is a large number of units stranded on both roads, therefore, the following hours once the roads are freed will be complex. to be able to mobilize all the tractor-trailers plus those scheduled for departure.
Cendejas Meneses added that next Friday and Saturday “it will be chaos,” since there will be no transportation because it is parked on the road.
“All of this is a pressure cooker that will cause there to be no boxes to return and bring back imports, a shortage that adds to the shortage of operators,” he said.
Added to this is that in the Official Newspaper of Nuevo León , Governor Samuel García published an agreement in which the circulation of all types of vehicles is suspended.
“For Civil Protection reasons and to safeguard the population, the circulation of all types of vehicles, as well as the carrying out of activities, are suspended for the entire day of June 20, 2024, until 6:00 a.m. on June 21, 2024. of jobs or services, with the aim of ensuring that the population remains protected during this period of time, with the exception of this measure for public transportation and vehicles intended to safeguard public safety,” the agreement dictates.
Likewise, in the case of Dicex, Javier Cendejas commented that they are prepared for home office (remote work) , however, in the production plants, loading and unloading of goods is where the process is being paused, in addition to Import shipments are stopped to prevent shippers from heading to bottlenecks.
Cendejas Meneses recommended that in this situation, customs should extend opening hours to minimize the impact.
“In our experience, in the coming days, charters of urgent merchandise will increase, mainly for the automotive industry that loads some pallets so as not to be left in shortage,” he said.
With information from Didier Ramírez
*Photo: Los Chorros, section of the Matehuala (SLP)-Monterrey route
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