KEEPING THINGS CLOSER TO HOME

WHY MANUFACTURERS AND LOGISTICS COMPANIES ARE NEARSHORING IN MEXICO

- DAMIEN MARTIN

Draw a line north from Laredo, Texas, and you might as well be drawing a huge 50-yard line across the U.S. Throw in the fact that it’s less than 3 hours from Monterrey, Mexico’s manufacturing capital, and you’ll get a sense of why Laredo and its crossborder counterpart, Nuevo Laredo, are poised to become a logistics hub for North America.

Nearshoring, an idea that was gaining traction before Covid and has exploded since, is the trend of companies moving manufacturing out of China and other Asian countries and into Mexico, where shortened supply chains can ship products all over the U.S. in a matter of a couple of days rather than a few weeks.

As the Wall Street Journal reported, 5.5 million trucks headed northbound from Laredo in 2022, with the crossing surpassing the volume of goods received by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach by October. Expanded bridge infrastructure for trucks and trains is in the works in Laredo, where nearly 4 million square feet of warehouse space is under construction, the WSJ reported.

THE MOVE TO MEXICO

Based in the Tampa Bay area, BlueGrace Logistics is one of the largest 3PL providers in the U.S. and is embracing nearshoring with an expansion into Mexico. Chief commercial officer and president of 3PL services Scott Schara told BOSS the company plans to have 25-50 employees in Mexico by the end of 2024.

“We’re still selecting the cities we want to go to,” he said. “Initially, we’ll target three cities for sales and operational aspects, primarily sales.