Ryder System Inc., the transportation and supply chain service provider, has opened a new logistics operation in Laredo, Texas, and expanded its drayage yard in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, saying the move would support growth in manufacturing, while speeding products across the border.
The investment comes as a time when many U.S. companies are applying “nearshoring” strategies to shift production and manufacturing from distant overseas locations to closer countries. In fact, the ports of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo now comprise the top inland transborder trade port between the United States and Mexico, after Mexico’s rise to the number one spot among U.S. trading partners last year, Ryder said.
As that trend has gained strength, a number of logistics providers are building bigger footprints to handle the rising volume, including recent examples like Arrive Logistics and BlueGrace Logistics.
Miami-based Ryder’s move features a newly built 228,000-square-foot multiclient warehouse and cross dock in Laredo, sited three miles from the World Trade Bridge on the U.S.-Mexico border. The facility has 102 dock doors and room for 143 trailers.
“If you look at the market, truck border crossing activity between the U.S. and Mexico is up more than 20% annually since the pandemic, as more businesses look to nearshoring to diversify their supply chains and shorten lead times,” Ricardo Alvarez, vice president of supply chain operations for Ryder Mexico, said in a release. “The savings from manufacturing overseas can be offset by inventory sitting on ships or in seaports incurring storage fees; and, of course, by the product being unavailable to meet demand. With Mexico, you put what you need on a truck and it can be in a final-mile distribution center within days, not months.”
