Mexico’s foreign trade operates under strict continuity and security requirements for companies within the supply chain . These include companies certified as Authorized Economic Operators (AEOs), which are subject to minimum security standards and measures to identify and mitigate risks that could affect their operations. The contrast becomes apparent when the public infrastructure supporting the trade faces a contingency and the backup mechanisms are put to the test.
This occurred on September 14th . A disruption in the electrical power supply that feeds some servers of the Tax Administration Service (SAT) caused intermittent connection issues for generating the Document for Customs Clearance Operation (DODA) , according to information from the SAT itself and the National Customs Agency of Mexico (ANAM) .
The situation takes on a new dimension when considering the value of goods traded between Mexico and its main trading partner. From January to July 2026, trade between Mexico and the United States reached $588,523.8 million , comprised of $358,707 million in Mexican exports and $229,816.8 million in imports from the United States.
A year earlier, throughout 2025, bilateral trade totaled $872,833.68 million , compared to $884,891.96 million in 2024 and $798,834.66 million in 2023, according to T21 Business Intelligence with data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) and the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) .
Road transport on the front line
Dependence on customs systems becomes relevant for road transport , the main mode for bilateral trade.
Between January and July 2026, trucks transported goods worth $445,186.38 million , equivalent to 75.6% of the total trade between Mexico and the United States recorded during that period. In all of 2025, the total was $642,241.16 million.
The remainder of the exchange from January to July was distributed among the railroad with $55,692.14 million; maritime with $40,312.98 million; air with $26,917.93 million; and pipelines with $5,692.58 million.
Therefore, a disruption in customs processes is not limited to the system itself. The effects ultimately impact team productivity, queues, and the accumulation of goods.
Juan Carlos Varela, general director of the Transportation Division of Grupo Palos Garza , explained that during the recent disruptions , their transfer operators, who normally make around 2.5 trips per day, reduced their operation to approximately 1.5, while cargo began to accumulate on both sides of the border.
“Our yards were saturated, as were the warehouses,” he noted.
The consequences also depend on the type of merchandise. For perishables, every hour of downtime reduces the product’s shelf life; while industries like automotive, which operate under just-in-time systems , may face additional pressure to maintain supply and even resort to extraordinary measures in the face of urgent deliveries, Varela said.
It is not enough to recover the system
For the carriers consulted by T21, the problem lies not only in the possibility of a technological or electrical failure, but also in the capacity of the backup infrastructure to prevent that incident from affecting operations .
At this point, Varela considered it necessary to strengthen the available technological capacity to process the documents and information demanded by foreign trade.
“ You need more infrastructure in terms of servers or systems so that at any given time the documents and data can be processed and this doesn’t collapse,” he stated.
The carrier also highlighted the recurring nature of the problem. According to their records, this would be the fifth time since 2025 that they have faced a system outage lasting close to or exceeding 24 hours.
The discussion isn’t limited to increasing the number of servers. It also extends to the mechanisms that should be activated when the main infrastructure stops responding.
Edgar Zamorano, secretary of the Border Commission of the National Chamber of Freight Transportation (Canacar) , pointed out that during the recent disruptions, the contingency plan was not implemented with the timeliness required for operations. His argument is that backup processes should allow for maintaining the flow of goods while the primary problem is being resolved.
Among the needs he identified are generators, telecommunications infrastructure, and geographically distributed data centers , so that an impact at one point does not compromise other operations.
Carriers consulted by this media outlet questioned how an impact on the electricity supply could have resulted in intermittent service in a process necessary for dispatch, particularly given the backup measures that the companies themselves must implement to maintain the continuity of their operations.
One of the transporters directly questioned the explanation offered by the authority.
“The statement is pathetic. Because of a power outage? To be an OAS member, they require us to have generators and backup batteries so that this doesn’t happen,” said one of the transporters.
The report highlights a contrast: while members of the supply chain must prepare to respond to power outages, the failure reported by the authority ended up affecting the generation of the DODA and transferring its consequences to the operation .
The official explanation was that a disruption in the electrical power supply to some of the SAT’s servers caused the intermittent outages. SAT and ANAM reported that the problem occurred on September 14 and recurred for several hours the following day; they later indicated that service had been restored.
The operation began to regain its pace and, in Nuevo Laredo, working full hours allowed progress in clearing the accumulated cargo, explained Ricardo Pillado, Canacar delegate in Nuevo Laredo.
“At this moment everything is working normally, yesterday it helped that the Nuevo Laredo customs office worked its full schedule and was able to clear all the backlog from Sunday, Monday and Tuesday when the system was intermittent,” Pillado emphasized.
The normalization of operations resolves the immediate contingency, but not the underlying problem it exposed. The challenge lies in strengthening the infrastructure and backup mechanisms so that an electrical or technological failure cannot again halt key foreign trade processes.
Comment and follow us on LinkedIn: @Karina Quintero / @GrupoT21
