The Mexican government is considering the possibility of building an intermodal terminal near the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), a project that could provide cross-docking, transshipment, storage, and distribution services.
“Plans are in place by the Railway Transportation Regulatory Agency to open an intermodal terminal in Chiapas and another project near the airport, AIFA,” said Víctor Velázquez, vice president of the Railway Working Group of the Mexican Association of Freight Forwarders (Amacarga).
During the webinar “Railway Transport: Driving Nearshoring and Efficiency in Cargo Logistics” organized by the Higher Institute of Logistics Studies, he detailed that this type of infrastructure would be important due to its geographical position.
“It has quick access to the highway, there is enough space to have a covered terminal, a yard with railway tracks to allow them to carry out operations in the yard and in the covered area. It will be very interesting to see a terminal there,” he opined.
However, he emphasized the importance of the Hidalgo Intermodal Logistics Terminal (TILH), owned by Hutchison Ports, which has low demand and that “we would have to create a culture of using these terminals within the country. There’s Querétaro, Silao, San Luis Potosí, Torreón, which few people know about. They are ready to be used.”
Likewise, he commented that given the impact that nearshoring is having in the country, work should be done to modernize customs so that they are not only points of collection but also control points and to ensure that they expedite processes.
“Modernize our customs; we have problems with exports because inspections can take two or three weeks and therefore you end up missing ship departures and paying for storage and delays. We need to understand that nearshoring is just around the corner and that we are still not prepared for this,” he said.
He explained that several companies will seek to settle near ports such as Manzanillo or Veracruz, in inland customs, as well as where there are railways such as Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Monterrey, Mexico City, Toluca, Torreón, or Silao.
“They will not settle in places where it costs them more to transport their goods. People who know will seek to settle near those places and the railway will play a very important role, in addition, we see that road transport will become scarce, which we are already seeing today. The transport fleet will not be enough for us; we have to start adopting the culture of using railways,” he indicated.
He commented that in terms of security, the railway industry has made various investments to address this issue and reduce theft.
He affirmed that Mexico has a good railway connection to the United States and Canada through various routes, as well as for the domestic market. “The range of opportunities in railway service is growing,” he said.
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