Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Texas bridge expansion focused on cross-border trucking; Mexico plans $3B expansion for Port of Manzanillo; John Deere building $55M factory in Mexico; and Speedy Freight opens 50,000-square-foot warehouse near Dallas.
Texas bridge expansion focused on cross-border trucking
The $83 million expansion of the Anzalduas International Bridge will have a significant impact on cross-border trade when it is completed in a few months, says Juan Olaguibel, superintendent of bridges for the city of McAllen, Texas.
The Anzalduas International Bridge, which opened in 2009, is on the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. Owned and operated by the cities of McAllen, Mission and Hidalgo, the 3.2 mile bridge is currently only open to passenger vehicles and empty commercial trucks driving south into Mexico.
“We’re looking forward to spring 2025 for it to be completed,” Olaguibel told FreightWaves in an interview. “When we get a full cargo truck crossing southbound across the bridge, I’m going to throw a party. This project has been a decade in the works. We have overcome challenges, obstacles. We just have to figure out how to get through them.”
The Anzalduas International Bridge in Texas currently allows empty trucks to travel southbound to Mexico, but not commercial trucks to enter the US.
The expansion project will add two additional lanes to the bridge, one each for northbound and southbound commercial trucks to go in and out of Mexico, as well as the necessary facilities for an international port.
Anzalduas International Bridge will process an estimated 1,200 to 2,000 trucks a day once construction on the new commercial lanes is completed. In 2023, the city of McAllen processed 42,749 empty southbound trucks.
The Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge is about 12 miles east of Anzalduas in Pharr, Texas. It is one of the busiest commercial border crossings in the U.S., averaging about 6,000 daily commercial trucks, and is the No. 1 land border crossing for fresh produce.
Olaguibel said the Anzalduas bridge will focus on dry van trucks carrying goods such as auto parts, electronics, medical goods, aeronautical supplies and more.
“It’s going to be a dry bridge; no produce is going to come through it,” Olaguibel said. “We want to make sure that we have a safe bridge. We want to make sure it’s a fast bridge. We want to make sure that businesses really find value on this bridge. We’ve been working very closely with U.S. Customs and Border Protection on exactly what technology they need, exactly how we’re going to make this happen.”
As of Friday, the freight market in McAllen – which includes the Anzalduas and Pharr-Reynosa bridges – was down 15% in outbound load volume year over year, according to the SONAR Outbound Tender Volume Index (OTVI.MFE).
SONAR’s Outbound Tender Volume Index for McAllen, Texas (OTVI.MFE), shows 2024 trucking volumes (blue line) have been trending higher compared to 2022 (green line) but are lower than 2023 (pink line). To learn more about SONAR, click here.
Teclo Garcia, executive director of the Mission (Texas) Economic Development Corp., told FreightWaves in an interview the expansion has already been a boon for the local commercial real estate market.
The city of Mission has issued about $650 million in construction permits over the past four years, much of which Garcia attributed to companies focused on cross-border trade.
“There’s plenty of progress happening at the bridge in terms of the completion to get more cargo moving across … . [T]hat’s what’s driving some of our industrial clients and a lot of investments in the area,” Garcia said. “We are getting a lot of calls. Right now we’re working on three projects that are going to be located around the bridge. If we get them to fruition, it’s going to add hundreds of thousands of square feet of distribution space, warehousing and also a manufacturing facility.”
Mexico plans $3B expansion for Port of Manzanillo
Mexican authorities announced a project aiming to transform the Port of Manzanillo into a major global container shipping hub.
The Port of Manzanillo is on Mexico’s central Pacific Coast. It is one of the busiest container ports in the country and is Mexico’s main Pacific gateway for trade with China.
“The modernization of the port of Manzanillo, which begins today in the Cuyutlan lagoon, will be extraordinary,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said during a Nov. 20 kickoff of the project.
The project will increase capacity at the Port of Manzanillo from 3.9 million twenty-foot equivalent units to 10 million TEUs, as well as expand the port from 1,112 acres to 4,448 acres.
In October, the Port of Manzanillo handled 316,000 TEUs.
The expansion project includes deepening the port’s Bay of Cuyutlan to a depth of 59 feet to accommodate larger container ships.
The expansion will elevate Manzanillo into one of the top 15 global container gateways, on par with ports in Los Angeles and Taiwan, Mario Alberto Gasque Pena, general director of the Port of Manzanillo, told El Financiero.
Construction on the project began last week and is scheduled to be completed in 2030.
John Deere building $55M factory in Mexico
Officials for John Deere said they are moving ahead with plans to build a $55 million manufacturing plant in Monterrey, Mexico.
The facility, which will focus on producing machinery for the construction market in North America, is scheduled to begin operations in 2026.
“The company seeks to continue to invest in the country and is committed to sustainability, urban development. … [D]espite political changes, our position is to aim for development as a company,” Gecimar Morini, John Deere’s manager for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, told El Economista. “We see Mexico as an attractive market, which is why we are investing in the expansion of our dealers and growth in new territories.”
The move comes after President-elect Donald Trump said he would impose 200% tariffs on Mexican imports of John Deere products company moved any production or jobs south of the border.
John Deere (NYSE: DE) currently operates four manufacturing facilities in Mexico. The manufacturer has a dedicated export lane at the Colombia Solidarity International Bridge in Laredo, Texas.
Moline, Illinois-based John Deere Deere operates 100 factories in more than 30 countries with an estimated 83,000 employees. The company manufactures agricultural machinery, heavy equipment, forestry machinery, diesel engines and drivetrains (axles, transmissions, gearboxes) used in heavy equipment.
Speedy Freight opens 50,000-square-foot warehouse near Dallas
Same-day courier Speedy Freight has opened an office and a 50,000-square-foot warehouse in Irving, Texas.
The new facilities, which will serve as the company’s U.S. headquarters and training academy, represent an investment of $1.5 million, according to a news release. Irving is about 12 miles northwest of downtown Dallas.
Officials for Speedy Freight said the Dallas location is part of a strategy to establish a major presence in the U.S. market. The firm aims to launch eight franchises in the U.S. by the end of 2025.
“Our central Dallas location not only supports our franchise network but enables us to develop specialized logistics solutions that make a real difference for clients across industries,” Kody Slade, president of operations for Speedy Freight, said in a statement.
Knutsford, England-based Speedy Freight provides full truckload, less-than truckload, drayage, expedited shipping and cross-border operations. Speedy Freight also offers inventory and supply chain management services, as well as warehousing capacity and cross-dock ability.
The post Borderlands Mexico: Texas bridge expansion focused on cross-border trucking appeared first on FreightWaves.
