Sunset Transportation, a St. Louis-based third-party logistics (3PL) provider, recently opened a new customs brokerage office and warehouse facility at the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas.
The new Laredo branch office will service the Mexico market with cross-border logistics solutions, Mexico and U.S. customs clearance, warehousing and transloading access.
“We now have the capability to manage customers’ international shipments with complete supply chain visibility and control, including customs expertise we believe to be unparalleled in the 3PL space,” said Sunset chief operations officer Lindsey Graves in a news release.
José Minarro, a Mexico customs and logistics expert, will be the managing director of Sunset Transportation’s Laredo office. Daniel Treviño will be the operations manager.
Prior to joining Sunset, Minarro spent 11 years as a co-founder and managing director of Transplace Mexico.
“Shippers feel like they lose control when shipping southbound,” Minarro said in a release. “Now we can offer Sunset customers a full door-to-door solution in a winning equation of U.S. customs, Mexico customs in the largest port cities, and secure, modern warehouse facilities.”
Sunset’s new warehouse is a 35,000 square-foot facility located off Interstate 35, just north of Laredo. The facility has 21 docks and a yard that can accommodate up to 225 trucks.
The facility in Laredo is “unique in the Laredo market due to the size of the yard,” Minarro said.
“Cross-border freight requires more and more space to manage the Mexico and U.S. trailers to do transloads of the cargo,” Minarro added. “We are prepared to manage high volume transload operations 24/7.”
The Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT)-compliant and food grade-certified facility was built in 2018.
Sunset’s new facilities in Laredo will focus on central Mexico, particularly in the Bajio, Monterrey and Mexico City regions, capitalizing on the high presence of industrial and manufacturing customers in those locations.
