Amid a tightening of tariff policies by the United States government, rail freight traffic between Mexico and its northern neighbor registered a 10.1% drop through mid-April compared to the same period in 2024.
According to figures from the Association of American Railroads (AAR) , the cumulative volume moved by railroads between both borders was 376,337 railcars, containers, and intermodal trailers.
This recorded decline was driven by a drop in all segments analyzed , except for intermodal freight , which rose slightly by 1.7% and which represents 46.4% of the total rail cars.
The sectors that registered the greatest decline were non-metallic minerals, metallic minerals and metals, agricultural products except cereals, and food.
Data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) , an office of the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) , indicates that as of the second month of this year, the rail share of trade with the United States was 10.9% , equivalent to seven billion 488 million dollars, compared to eight billion 344 million dollars in 2024, which translates into a drop of 9.9 percent.
Carlos Barreda Westphal, director of the Ferroviaria.mx platform , noted that based on figures recently published by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) , during the first quarter of this year, trade relations between Mexico and the United States showed a surplus equivalent to 4% compared to the same period in 2024.
In contrast, he commented, the AAR has published negative results regarding rail freight traffic in Mexico, stating that there were declines in virtually all types of freight transported.
“These two indicators are linked since the largest percentage of freight moved by rail in our country is linked to trade with the United States, although the opposite is true: we import more goods by this means of transport than we export,” he explained.
He also specified that the AAR excludes the operations of Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), which is the country’s second-largest cargo operator and responsible for serving the main rail border crossing in Nuevo Laredo.
“So, for now, the available information is incomplete, although it could easily be estimated that the results will actually be positive if we take into account the results obtained by Grupo México Transportes during the first quarter and the increases in purchases that were anticipated as a preventive measure against the entry into force of the tariffs announced by the Donald Trump administration,” he opined.
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