Los Angeles beware: Hutchison studies Mexican West Coast gateway
In a move that will cause alarm in the high-cost, congested ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the world’s largest container terminal operator Hutchison Port Holdings confirmed it is studying investing in Northwest Mexico.
“We confirm that a collaboration agreement was signed with the State of Baja California to collectively perform a feasibility study on a major intermodal development project,” a spokesman for Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings said. Baja California is the Mexican state that includes the northernmost part of the Pacific coast of Mexico, including the port of Ensenada, located only 50 miles south of the U.S. border.
The Hutchison spokesman could not comment on whether a port development on the West Coast of Mexico would directly compete with Los Angeles and Long Beach.
The success of any Mexican terminal to move U.S. containerized imports inland would depend on the availability of good rail intermodal links to the U.S. inland and efficient border crossing procedures.
Hutchison already operates Mexican container terminals in Ensenada, Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas on the West Coast, as well as a terminal at Veracruz on the Mexican Gulf Coast.
The investment study may herald a major threat to the dominant position of Los Angeles and Long Beach on the West Coast of North America.
Hutchison has refrained from investing in U.S. container terminals, saying American port authorities prefer a model of terminals leased to tenants rather than terminals owned and operated by independent companies.
