USMCA corridor and KCS new bridge will connect Mazatlan with Canada and the East Coast of the US

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The new USMCA corridor, which will include the construction of a port in Mazatlán and 180 kilometers of a rail line that will cross Sinaloa and Durango, will connect the Mexican Pacific coast with Canada and the East coast of the United States through the bridge that Kansas City Southern (KCS) will construct between Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.

The project promoted by Caxxor Group plans to increase Asia’s trade with the United States, Canada, and Mexico through this new connection that will benefit 10 states in the north of the country.

Two yellow locomotives and double stack freight train passing through town

Fernando Ruiz Huarte, general director of the Mexican Council for Foreign Trade (Comce), said that infrastructure such as the one promoted by KCS will be used to trigger the regional economy.

The railway company obtained a permit from the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to build a cross-border bridge between Laredo and Nuevo Laredo to guarantee the growth of trade and improve security in the region.

After the endorsement, KCS is in the process of obtaining permits with authorities on both sides of the border, in the case of Mexico with the Ministry of Communications and Transportation (SCT) and the National Water Commission (Conagua), among other government agencies.

“The creation of a bridge will be very important because it will allow for continuity in exports and imports and we will obviously rely on this new infrastructure,” said the director of Comce at the presentation of the USMCA Corridor.

Carlos Ortiz, CEO of Caxxor Group, commented that practically all railroad operators are interested in the project. That even the president of KCS in Mexico, Óscar del Cueto, participated in the announcement of the same at the last Business Summit.

However, due to confidentiality issues, he could not reveal who will participate and in what way in the conformation of this corridor until the project’s master plan is presented, at the end of January.

“The project foresees an investment of 900 million US dollars for the new port of Mazatlán and 700 million US dollars more for the rail line that will go from the coast of Sinaloa all the way up to Monterrey, and from there to Nuevo Laredo, where it will cross the border into US territory”, said Ruiz.

In addition, he said, real estate developments and logistics centers will be built around the work, and it will connect with the southern region through Puerto Chiapas, in which Caxxor also has investments.

Overall, the investment bank estimates an investment of 3.3 billion dollars in infrastructure to support trade in the North American region.

The Caxxor Group director stated that the USMCA Corridor will attract US companies that are currently established in Asia and are looking to return to the continent under the new trade agreement.

But this project also wants to attract Asian companies looking to establish themselves in the region.

For the first stage of the USMCA Corridor construction, which is expected to last three or four years, around 10,000 jobs will be created and these will increase as the project’s maturity stage approaches towards the year 2035.

Ortiz and Ruiz Huarte commented that once the master plan is presented they will seek an approach with the Business Coordinating Council (CCE) so that the project is registered within the infrastructure plan of the private initiative with the federal government.

Source: OEM

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