By Kylie Madry
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Ford shipped its first batch of automobiles on Tuesday from the once-ignored Guaymas port close to its plant within the northern Mexican state of Sonora in a undertaking that, if totally launched, may minimize the U.S. automaker’s logistics prices, in response to the state governor, by 30%.
The preliminary cargo of pickups and Broncos, headed for Chile, is a part of a broader revamp of the Guaymas port, an infrastructure undertaking headed by Mexico’s outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Ford (NYSE:) has lengthy been sending its autos practically 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) over land from Hermosillo to the port of Lazaro Cardenas, within the state of Michoacan, Sonora Governor Alfonso Durazo stated in an interview.
Durazo described the lengthy haul as a “logistical tragedy” that might simply be mounted by transferring delivery to the Guaymas port.
Ford executives participated in an occasion with state authorities officers on Tuesday. Ricardo Anaya, director of producing at Ford Mexico, stated in a press release that “that is the primary time we will make the most of the port following the funding within the modernization and enlargement.”
Durazo stated building was underway on a parking platform on the port to permit the shipments to exit on a bigger scale.
“This additionally implies that automobiles may are available, they might enter the Sonoran market and even the American market by the Guaymas port,” Durazo stated.
Work to deepen the port’s waters is ongoing to allow Guaymas to obtain heavier ships with bigger cargo hundreds, Durazo stated.
Earlier than Lopez Obrador’s time period is over in October, “we hope to go one step additional and obtain or dispatch a container ship to the Asian market,” the governor stated.
Mexican states need to profit from the so-called “nearshoring” development, as corporations decide to maneuver operations usually positioned in Asia nearer to their last vacation spot in North America.