U.S-Mexico border

In December, Mexico’s commercial truck industry produced 19,739 tractor-trailers

Individuals who allegedly crossed border illegally were reportedly found climbing moving train and locked in grain hopper.

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: CBP beefs up security at US-Mexico border; Kenworth restarts truck factory in Mexico; Love’s Travel Stops opens new location in Laredo; Port of Brownsville ranks third for “financial resilience.”

Reports of deaths tied to maquiladoras come at a time when Mexican trade groups are pushing to reopen factories that have been shut down because of the coronavirus.

In March, 204,383 commercial vehicles crossed the World Trade and Colombia Solidarity commercial bridges in Laredo. It was 284 fewer truck crossings than in March 2019, a 0.1% decline.

For the second time in a year, Port Laredo again ranks first among the nation’s more than 450 airports, seaports and border crossings.

Cheez-Its, chocolate, candy among top imports from Mexico during pandemic; CBP stops wood-munching pests from entering Port Houston; $4.2 million of cocaine seized at border patrol checkpoint; and trucking services firm Liftit expands operations in Mexico.

In an effort to fight COVID-19, Laredo officials are requiring people to wear face masks when entering a public building, pumping gas, riding in public transportation or traveling by a rideshare vehicle.

The latest regional survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas shows that general business activity for manufacturing in Texas declined to -70 in March.

Mexico was the U.S.’s largest trading partner in 2019, with more than $614 billion in two-way trade.

Around 2,000 trucks a day use State Route 189, and the improvements could save more than 10 minutes per northbound truck, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Walmart opens new distribution center to meet e-commerce demand; border officials lobby for funding of new truck and railway bridges; two Texas seaports receive $39 million for improvements and expansion; Mexican manufacturing association creates coronavirus prevention task force.

El Paso, Texas, and Santa Teresa, New Mexico, benefit from their proximity to Juarez, Mexico, “the king of maquiladoras.”

Tomatoes imported from Mexico will begin undergoing tougher inspections at the border starting April 1. The increased inspections are part of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s deal with Mexican growers to suspend its anti-dumping investigation into the produce.

Grupo HG Transportaciones’ new Cascadia trucks are equipped with Detroit DD13 engines and Detroit Assurance technology, aiming to increase driving safety.

The Justice Department said eight U.S. cities account for 75% of the methamphetamine seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The bankruptcy of several trucking firms has impacted capacity and U.S. trailer availability in Mexico, forcing companies to look at different ways to keep freight rates low.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents working at the Ysleta port of entry in El Paso, Texas, seized 1,543 pounds of liquid methamphetamine Wednesday.  CBP spokesman Roger Maier told FreightWaves the liquid methamphetamine “would have an estimated street value of $30 million.”  The liquid methamphetamine was reportedly hidden in a shipment of cleaning supplies […]

With Valentine’s Day just days away, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents are working hard to make sure imported flowers are pest and disease free. “CBP agriculture specialists are working hard every day preventing potentially harmful plant pests and foreign animal diseases from entering the U.S.,” Hector Mancha, CBP El Paso director of field […]

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Mexico considers law banning all double tractor-trailer trucks; Dynacraft finalizing relocation of plant to Texas; QSL opens new marine terminal on the Houston Ship Channel; El Paso border agents bust two commercial trucks for carrying narcotics. […]

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Toyota begins production at its new Tacoma plant in Mexico; fatal shooting reported at family-owned trucking company in San Antonio; new superintendent appointed for international commercial bridges; and CBP seizes $1.5 million in cocaine inside shipment […]

A wide range of officials on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border as well as trucking associations on Thursday praised the new trade deal among the United States, Mexico and Canada, after the U.S. Senate passed the deal, sending it to President Donald Trump for his signature. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) passed the Senate […]

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Cross-border trucking remains strong despite ongoing violence in Mexico; Freight tech firm GuruCargo is acquired by regional company; FIBRA Prologis expands in Mexico; and Nuevo León becomes the No. 1 state in Mexico for manufacturing. Cross-border […]

Mexico continues to be the top trading partner for the United States, ranking No. 1 in total trade value through November, at $567.81 billion.  It marks the 11th straight month Mexico has been in first, with Canada second and China third. China had led the list from July 2017 until December 2018.  The ongoing trade […]

Third-party logistics provider Source Logistics recently signed a pre-lease agreement to rent the new 423,280-square-foot building No. 2 at the Port Grande logistics facility in Laredo, Texas. The new facility is 10 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border and features a 32-foot ceiling clearance, 120 dock-high doors, four ground-level doors, a large, secured truck courtyard, 242 […]

Mexican tomatoes being detained at the border for longer inspections is “unjustified,” according to agricultural officials in Mexico. Víctor Villalobos Arámbula, Mexico’s secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER), said 43 truckloads of Mexican tomatoes have been detained at the U.S.-Mexico border since Nov. 18 as part of stepped up inspections against the tomato brown […]

In Mexico, the number of cargo thefts decreased 10.3% in November 2019, compared to the same month last year, according to recent data. There were 923 robberies of tractor-trailers reported in Mexico in November, compared to 1,029 during the same period last year, according to a report from Alfonso Durazo, head of Mexico’s Ministry of […]

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Truckers hail House passage of USMCA trade pact; officials discover never-before-seen bug in Mexico shipment; Grammer Logistics acquires Houston-based hazardous materials transportation firm; and SATO expands auto-ID services with new Guanajuato facility. Truckers, union officials hail […]

Trucks continue to carry the majority of cross-border imports and exports during the month of October, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). Cross-border truck freight between the U.S., Canada and Mexico totaled $68.2 billion, or 64% of all cross-border freight during October, down 3.3% compared to October 2018. Along […]

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Police find $3 million in barrels of pork headed for Mexico; Stabilis Energy opens new transportation hub in Mexico; sales of heavy-duty trucks and buses fell 45.7% in Mexico during November; UPS driver arrested for allegedly […]

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Ikea acquires 42,000-acre forest in Texas; Port of Brownsville gains approval for $38 billion LNG projects; Laredo border bridges see long lines for cargo trucks; Global logistics provider Röhlig expands in Mexico. Ikea acquires 42,000-acre forest in […]

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: CBP seizes $8.4 million in marijuana bust; Texas port opens its first US-Mexico commercial FAST lane; Diligent Delivery Systems consolidates transportation-logistics operations; Unimacts acquires Tijuana manufacturing plant. CBP seizes $8.4 million of marijuana smuggled in cargo […]

Drug cartel members in the northern border city of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, across from Laredo, Texas, recently hijacked trucks to form blockades on major avenues and temporarily block international bridges, according to Mexican authorities. A shootout between alleged cartel members and soldiers in Mexico’s National Guard left a suspected gunman dead on Nov. 19. That […]

Connectivity is crucial to success in trucking. Darren Prokop writes about various aspects of connectivity that make trucking more transparent and efficient.

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Holiday surge increases truck wait times; Truck driver dies during fatal I-10 crash; YRC Freight rolls out Texas next-day service; Officials seize truck carrying $1.9 million stash of cocaine. Holiday surge increases wait times at Laredo and […]

Gildan Activewear is closing its operations in Mexico and laying off 1,700 employees at two plants in Sonora, the state across the U.S.-Mexico border from Arizona. “As we looked at our cost structure in the future, we feel that we can achieve a much lower cost by limiting the facilities,” CEO Glenn Chamandy told analysts […]

Microsoft recently announced a $1.5 million investment in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to help expand companies in the manufacturing sector on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. The investment is part of a Microsoft program called the Bridge Accelerator, which will train 75 existing companies in Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, Texas, over the next three […]

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Mexico’s government nears legalizing marijuana; U.S.-Mexico sugar trade agreement in limbo; Texas-Mexico border gets new bridge for commercial trucks; and $650,000 worth of marijuana found in shipment of Thai bananas Mexico is set to legalize recreational […]

The U.S. Department of Commerce has opened an inquiry into whether companies are circumventing anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders on steel rebar from Mexico by bending the product “at one or both ends.”  The Commerce Department press release announcing the inquiry did not specify which companies are being investigated. Mexico was the fourth-largest foreign supplier […]

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 […]

The city of Pharr, Texas, will soon begin $30 million in infrastructure projects at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge along the United States-Mexico border. The projects are aimed at expediting border crossings for the transportation of oil and natural gas products, as well as perishable goods such as avocados from Mexico, said Luis Bazán, general director […]

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Border checkpoint affecting truck wait times; Protestors shut down Houston Ship Channel; Trailer Bridge moves into Mexico market; Texas trucking company indicted for drug smuggling. Customs inspections, construction projects affecting border wait times in El Paso Commercial […]

Officials in Mexico and the United States are discussing expanding a joint pilot inspection program aimed at reducing wait times for agricultural products at the border The program has already been implemented at Port Laredo’s Colombia Solidarity International Bridge, where wait times have been reduced by an average of 3.5 hours, according to a release […]

The U.S. Department of Commerce recently issued 31% tariffs on structural steel imports from Mexico and 141% tariffs on steel from China. U.S. officials made a determination that producers in both Mexico and China had dumped fabricated structural steel on the U.S. market at prices below fair market value, hurting the U.S. steel industry. “The […]

Cross-border truck freight with Mexico dipped 1 percent in June, compared to the same period in 2018, according to recent data from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics released last week. The new data reported that trans-border trucks carried freight totaling $66 billion for the month of June, with trucks accounting for […]

Avocado supplies are expected to return to normal after a summer shortage sent prices skyrocketing in July. Prices spiked in mid-July due to imports of avocados from Peru and Mexico tightening. In addition, the summer avocado harvest from California growers was down this season because of a heatwave in 2018, industry professionals said. “Peru imports […]

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Odessa, Texas, ranked #4 city for truck drivers; New U.S. Ambassador arrives in Mexico; Surgere sets its sights on Mexico supply chains; and Love’s Travel Stops opens location in Brownsville, Texas.  Study: Odessa, Texas, ranked as […]

Truck wait times at ports of entry along the United States-Mexico border are up, from El Paso, Texas, to Otay Mesa, California. Industry professionals said the longer wait times are a combination of truckers spending more time waiting to load and unload freight at docks and intermodal facilities, as well as slower border inspection routines […]

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was the hot topic at the most recent meeting of the Laredo Motor Carriers Association (LMCA). Trucking industry leaders, customs brokers, freight forwarders and trade professionals from both sides of the United States-Mexico border gathered August 15 in Laredo for a presentation entitled “Modernization of Cross-Border Trade.”  Speaking at the […]

Port Laredo and the Port of El Paso reported declines in total trade volumes for the first six months of 2019, compared to the same period last year.  Laredo’s trade with the world fell slightly – 0.39 percent – from $116.6 billion to $116.15 billion through the first six months of 2019, according to WorldCity […]

United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspection policies “don’t reflect new technology or threats” and are “outdated,” according to an August 6 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). CBP border inspections for passenger and commercial vehicles currently include reviewing travel documents, screening against law enforcement databases and using canines and X-ray machines. However, […]

Indiana-based Steel Dynamics Inc. announced it will build a $1.9 billion mill in Sinton, Texas, about 25 miles northwest of the Port of Corpus Christi. The site for the new mill is strategically located for the southwestern United States and Mexican markets, the company said in a statement July 23. Steel Dynamics is one of the […]

E-commerce packages are flooding the U.S. The vast majority contain legal products, but U.S. Customs and Border Patrol worries about those that contain illegal or dangerous products.

New equipment will allow U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents inspect up to 50 trucks per hour along the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico.

BRP Inc. recently expanded the capacity at two of its production facilities in Mexico, where it builds its powersport and personal watercraft vehicles. The Quebec-based company’s increased production comes at a time when the market for recreational powersport and water-sport vehicles is estimated to grow from $11 billion in 2018 to $14.5 billion by 2025, […]

As many as 50,000 angry farmers throughout Mexico blocked highways and an international bridge along the Texas-Mexico border on July 17 in protest of the government of President Andres Manuel López Obrador.  The Mexican farmers’ protest spread over 42 locations in some 23 Mexican states throughout the country, including an eight-hour blockage of the commercial […]

The United States is sending an additional deployment of 1,100 active-duty troops and 1,000 Texas National Guard soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border, Pentagon officials announced July 17. The new active-duty troops will arrive in Texas “in the next several weeks” and will provide “aerial surveillance, operational, logistical and administrative support” to U.S. Customs and Border […]

United States and Mexican avocado growers and importers recently broke ground on a partnership facility called “Casa APEAM” in Uruapan, Mexico. The new $12 million facility will be a venture between the Association of Export Producers and Packers of Avocado from Mexico (APEAM), the Mexican Department of Agriculture and Agrarian Development (SADER), and also house […]

Texas Gov. Greg Abott recently signed a bill aiming to speed up the inspection process for trucks carrying fresh produce across ports-of-entries along the Texas-Mexico border.  Texas House Bill 2155, which goes into effect September 1, reauthorizes a 2015 program allowing the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) to award grants totaling $750,000 over the next […]

A week after several international border bridges between the United States and Mexico had to be closed because of the migration crisis, U.S. officials announced migrant border arrests fell 28 percent in June. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced July 9 that about 104,000 migrants were taken into custody entering the Southwest border […]

Charger Logistics’ new state-of-the-art facility in Laredo is up and running. The company aims to double its business in Mexico and grow overall capacity by 200 trucks and manage 600 trailers at the location. Charger Logistics, which has its United States headquarters in Indiana, will use the new Laredo facility to serve as the company’s […]

More than $400 billion in freight crossed in both directions through the United States-Mexico border by truck in 2018. In Laredo, Texas, alone, more than two million trucks carried goods across the border last year. While President Donald Trump’s trade wars with Mexico and China have destabilized business markets, industry professionals said business along the […]

Rail union workers are at odds with other members of the freight rail industry over how cross-border rail operations are run at Laredo, Texas.

After the threat of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Mexican freight transporters  are now facing a new challenge with an anti-immigration checkpoint in Ciudad Juarez that is stretching wait times up to three hours near the border. Trucks and passenger vehicles traveling on the Chihuahua-Juárez highway heading north to El Paso are being delayed at a […]

Business is good at the Otay Mesa port of entry, California’s largest commercial land port of entry, which tallied a record $50 billion in two-way trade with Mexico during the last fiscal year. For June, the latest SONAR data shows outbound tender volumes in San Diego (OTVIY.SAN) are way up compared to last year. Currently, […]

Market expert Donald Broughton writes about the numerous consequences of a U.S. Mexico trade war and the damage that will be done on both sides of the border.

Trucking warns supply chain may still require Inventory buffers.