{"id":4799,"date":"2016-07-09T16:07:36","date_gmt":"2016-07-09T16:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minutes.machine.market\/?p=4799"},"modified":"2016-07-09T16:07:36","modified_gmt":"2016-07-09T16:07:36","slug":"port-of-tuxpan-is-the-new-competitor-in-mexicos-gulf-coast-container-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/machine.market\/blog\/port-of-tuxpan-is-the-new-competitor-in-mexicos-gulf-coast-container-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Port of Tuxpan is the new competitor in Mexico\u2019s Gulf Coast container market"},"content":{"rendered":"

The successful arrival and departure Monday night of the Hammonia Venetia<\/a> at the Port of Tuxpan, the first ever ship to dock there, was more than just the inauguration of a new Mexican port. It also ushered in what could be a fierce fight among Mexican ports on the Gulf Coast.<\/p>\n

Tuxpan Port Terminal SA<\/a> hopes to become the main pathway for goods heading for Mexico City. But the port faces steep challenges from Altamira<\/a> 125 miles to the north and Veracruz<\/a> 185 miles to the south, both of which boast more weekly services and volume.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0The Port of Tuxpan is hoping its proximity to Mexico City will be a draw for shippers.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Accornding to the JOC.com<\/a>, the 210-acre port, which cost $370 million to build and is owned by SSA Marine<\/a> of Seattle, including the land, hopes that its state of the art port equipment and position as the closest port to the Mexican capital, linked by a newly built highway, will encourage shippers to shift cargo to Tuxpan and away from its two rivals.<\/p>\n

That was the idea behind the construction of the port, when it was conceived 10 years ago, and it remains the same today, said John Bressi, general manager of the port.<\/p>\n

The thinking was that, although there were two existing ports, \u201ca steamship might as well pick the port in between and consolidate volume,\u201d Bressi said. \u201cInstead of calling at two ports, it could just call at one in the middle, having the best proximity to Mexico City.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the shippers, they all realize that there is a huge saving in both time and money to move the product to the closest port to Mexico City,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Still, Tuxpan has its work cut out for it. The 4,200-twenty-foot-equivalent-unit capacity Hammonton Venetia, which unloaded 70 containers at Tuxpan Monday, made the stop on the only service that at the moment calls Tuxpan, CMA CGM\u2019s weekly Victory Bridge. It begins in Le Havre, France, and ends in Miami, with port calls at Houston, Savannah and Charleston, as well as Tuxpan\u2019s competitors, Altamira and Veracruz.<\/p>\n

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Both Altamira and Veracruz, meanwhile, are among Mexico\u2019s busiest container ports, and were among four ports from the country ranked in JOC.com\u2019s Top 25 North American Ports<\/a> in 2015. So far this year, Veracruz has handled 274,000 loaded import and export TEUs, and Altamira has handled 227,000 loaded import and export TEUs. Together, they accounted for about 31 percent of all loaded containers handled in Mexico since the start of the year, figures from the Mexican Communications and Transport Secretariat show.<\/p>\n

Last year, Veracruz was home to more than 27 shipping lines and 54 fixed-day container services and was Mexico\u2019s top automobile import and export gateway, moving 60 percent of that cargo in Mexico. This year, Veracruz has about 25 weekly services, including routes to Europe, the U.S., the Caribbean and Latin America, and twice as many services overall.<\/p>\n

Altamira was the fastest-growing North American port in 2015, according to JOC.com\u2019s rankings. The port has services from 11 shipping lines, including to Europe, the U.S. and South America, according to its website.<\/p>\n

Fernando Barrenechea, owner of Grupo Barco, a Michoacan, Mexico, freight forwarding and logistics company that specializes in shipping avocados, said Tuxpan would be a good addition to the Gulf Coast port mix due to its proximity to Mexico City, and because Veracruz has little excess capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be good for the future,\u201d said Barrenechea, who said the new highway means the Mexican capital is reachable in about two and a half hours, compared to five to six hours from Veracruz. \u201cI think as the shipping lines get to know more about Tuxpan, there will be more signing in there.\u201d For the moment, however, the Tuxpan route to Europe is too slow to make it a useful route to ship avocados there, he said.<\/p>\n

The Tuxpan port opening comes as the Mexican government is pushing a vigorous expansion of the country\u2019s port system, as the country\u2019s rising middle class demands more imports and Mexico gains strength as a regional manufacturing powerhouse. The government said last year that it would invest $5 billion in the system, which has 117 ports, including an expansion at the Port of Veracruz, which would triple the port\u2019s capacity over 25 years.<\/p>\n

Tuxpan, which sits on land owned by SSA on a river estuary about a mile from the sea, had to make a public bid for the right to create a port on the waterfront, and soon ran into difficulty, said Bressi. About 20 lawsuits were filed, some of which were filed by the proposed port\u2019s neighbors, under various names, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew who was behind it, and obviously it was the competition,\u201d he said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t want to build a port. They wanted to block us from building a port.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, SSA beat the lawsuits and obtained the building and environmental permits needed to begin construction, which started three years ago, Bressi said. The company dredged the river, taking it from 33 feet to 50 feet, and installed four super post-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes, which can handle ships 23 containers wide, he said.<\/p>\n

The port\u2019s technology is expected to be a key selling point, said Bressi, who called it \u201cthe most state-of-the-art port in Latin America.\u201d The cranes are semi-automated, with laser guided systems to assist the operator, and yard cranes that are fully-automated robots, he said. The port also has an \u201cunmanned gate,\u201d which is operated by remote control, Bressi said.<\/p>\n

The port now has to build up its customer base, and like other ports<\/a>, Tuxpan is looking to Mexico\u2019s growing auto industry<\/a> for business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are targeting major original equipment manufacturers that are setting up shop here in Mexico, for exporting vehicles,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are talking to a couple of major automobile manufacturers to set up permanent base here.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, the port hopes to capitalize on the rise of the Mexican citrus industry, as the U.S. industry is weakened by \u201cgreening,\u201d a disease in which a tiny insect carries a bacteria that ruins the fruit and eventually kills the tree.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are talking to a group of shippers that are very close to having a dedicated service between the Gulf Coast of Mexico and Florida,\u201d Bressi said.<\/p>\n

Contact Hugh R. Morley at Hugh.Morley@ihs.com<\/a> and follow him on Twitter: @HughRMorley_JOC<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The successful arrival and departure Monday night of the Hammonia Venetia at the Port of Tuxpan, the first ever ship to dock there, was more than just the inauguration of a new Mexican port. It also ushered in what could be a fierce fight among Mexican ports on the Gulf Coast. Tuxpan Port Terminal SA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4800,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":""},"categories":[3,11],"tags":[1427,1563],"yoast_head":"\nPort of Tuxpan is the new competitor in Mexico\u2019s Gulf Coast container market - MachineMarket Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"googlebot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"bingbot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cranemarket.com\/blog\/port-of-tuxpan-is-the-new-competitor-in-mexicos-gulf-coast-container-market\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Port of Tuxpan is the new competitor in Mexico\u2019s Gulf Coast container market - MachineMarket Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The successful arrival and departure Monday night of the Hammonia Venetia at the Port of Tuxpan, the first ever ship to dock there, was more than just the inauguration of a new Mexican port. 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