Thread: Mexico plans huge Baja port for U.S. trade

Mexico plans huge Baja port for U.S. trade

President Calderon will open bidding for infrastructure contracts Thursday. The project is likely to transform the village of Punta Colonet.

By Marla Dickerson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 28, 2008

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's government is setting sail with the largest infrastructure project in the nation's history, a $4-billion seaport that it hopes will one day rival those of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

President Felipe Calderon is scheduled to travel to northern Baja California today to open bidding on a development that his administration hopes will catapult Mexico into a major player in North American logistics.


Plans call for the construction of a massive port in the tiny coastal village of Punta Colonet, about 150 miles south of Tijuana, along with new rail lines to whisk Asian-made goods north to the United States. Mexico's aim is to snatch some Pacific cargo traffic from Southern California's ports, whose growth is constrained by urban development and environmental concerns.

Punta Colonet is expected to have a capacity of 2 million shipping containers annually when it opens in 2014, Mexico's transportation secretariat told The Times But officials envision it ultimately handling five times that amount. Last year, the ports of L.A. and Long Beach handled 15.7 million containers combined.

The massive development is to be privately funded, with the first phase estimated to cost $4 billion to $5 billion. The government is expected to award the 45-year concession in 2009.


A number of major players are expected to vie for the project, including Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu, the world's second-richest man. Slim's infrastructure company, known as Ideal, has teamed with Mexican mining and railroad giant Grupo Mexico and New Jersey-based terminal operator Ports America Group to make a run at the deal.

"We've spent a lot of years working on this," said Miguel Favela, head of Mexican operations for Ports America. "It's going to make Mexico . . . much more competitive."

About 30 million shipping containers crossed the Pacific Ocean last year, a flow that increased about 10% annually in the last decade. A weak U.S. economy has slowed the trade, but experts predict it will rebound.

With shippers increasingly worried about congestion at L.A.-Long Beach, Punta Colonet has emerged as an attractive alternative. It's close to the United States. It possesses a wide, natural harbor. And it's in a lightly populated area offering room for expansion.

When Calderon visits the dusty hamlet of about 2,500 people today, he is expected to talk about the big changes in store. The village will need extensive upgrades to its roads, housing, electrical grid and water supply. State and local officials are planning for a city of about 200,000 to spring up around the port.

The changes envisioned are alarming environmentalists, who worry about the potential destruction of the area's plants and wildlife. But the farmers who scratch out a living there are thrilled at the prospect.

"What we need is employment for our kids," said Jesus Lara, representative of several peasant landowner groups that are eager to sell. "Everyone is excited. Having the president come to your town is like winning the Lotto."

But whether Punta Colonet turns out to be lucrative for Mexico won't be known for years. Competitors up and down the Pacific coast are in the midst of major upgrades. Panama has begun a $5.3-billion expansion of its landmark canal. Canada's Prince Rupert port in British Columbia began speeding containers to the American heartland by rail last year and is planning a major expansion.

Little of the cargo bound for Punta Colonet will stay in Mexico, making the port vulnerable to the whims of shippers, who can choose other routes to the U.S.

"Nothing is guaranteed," said Asaf Ashar, research professor with the National Ports and Waterways Institute in Washington. "It's a big risk."

Building a seaport from scratch would be difficult enough. But the overland transportation piece is likely to make or break Punta Colonet. The deal is being structured as a joint port-and-rail project, requiring terminal operators, railroads and construction companies to team up in consortia to win the bid. The railroad's ultimate route and U.S. crossing points will depend on which railway operator is chosen and how it manages to link up with existing rail networks on both sides of the border.

Union Pacific Corp. of Omaha and Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway Co. control the U.S. side of the tracks at most of the key U.S.-Mexico border crossings. Striking a deal with one of those companies to get the cargo to the American side will be crucial, said Paul Bingham, managing director of the global trade and transportation practice for Global Insight, a Massachusetts-based consulting firm.

"They have the ability to essentially choke off that port," Bingham said.

BNSF spokesman Patrick Hiatte said Wednesday that the company was "very interested" in the Punta Colonet project. He declined to say with whom the firm might collaborate to make a bid.

Union Pacific could not be reached for comment. The company earlier had teamed with Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings to make a run at the project, but that alliance dissolved last year.

marla.dickerson@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-m ... 4963.story

Mexico evidently plans on taking away the port business from Los Angeles and Long Beach at the cost of more American jobs.

This would appear to be a step in the direction of the NAU and the NAFTA super highway.

Do we need more tainted and dangerous shipments of goods from China?

Do we need more opportunities and means for the drug cartels and human smugglers to smuggle drugs and illegal aliens into the U.S. in these shipping containers?

This will be financed by China and the port will be run by companies based in Dubai. That's why Dubai bowed out so easily a couple of years ago from wanting to run port operations in Long Beach/LA. They had another option up their sleeve to deliver dirty bombs, toxic waste, chemicals, weapons, etc. into the USA. What better way to do it than using our next door neighbor's yard to launch an all out attack on the USA?

Originally Posted by JBParrothead

This will be financed by China and the port will be run by companies based in Dubai. That's why Dubai bowed out so easily a couple of years ago from wanting to run port operations in Long Beach/LA. They had another option up their sleeve to deliver dirty bombs, toxic waste, chemicals, weapons, etc. into the USA. What better way to do it than using our next door neighbor's yard to launch an all out attack on the USA?

Yeah. You kinda wonder what a Port Security Officer would get paid in Mexico.....

Despite the immigration control and reduction movement being riddled with neo-mercs I am informed enough to realize this port project and expansion of Mazatlan, Manzanillo Los Mochis and Puerto Diaz Ordaz is a good thing. If we want the illegal aliens to leave and more not to come here and to work in their country instead Mexico needs economic expansion of this kind.

Originally Posted by Richard

Despite the immigration control and reduction movement being riddled with neo-mercs I am informed enough to realize this port project and expansion of Mazatlan, Manzanillo Los Mochis and Puerto Diaz Ordaz is a good thing. If we want the illegal aliens to leave and more not to come here and to work in their country instead Mexico needs economic expansion of this kind.

I HAVE TO DISAGREE. THIS WILL TAKE PORT JOBS AWAY FROM AMERICAN CITIZENS IN THIS COUNTRY. ALSO IT MIGHT TAKE JOBS FROM AMERICAN TRUCK DRIVERS AS WELL, IF MEXICAN TRUCKS ARE ALLOWED TO BRING THIS STUFF UP HERE.

I SAY NO TO THIS. IT REALLY IS NOT OUR PROBLEM TO SUPPLY JOBS FOR MEXICAN CITIZENS. IT IS OUR PROBLEM TO SUPPLY JOBS TO AMERICAN CITIZENS.

WE HAVE TO BUY AMERICAN TO THWART THIS DEAL. IF WE DONT BUY IT THEY WONT SHIP IT.

AND JUST BECAUSE MEXICANS HAVE A HARD TIME FINDING JOBS IN MEXICO, DOES NOT MEAN WE HAVE TO LET THEM COME UP HERE.

BUILD THE WALL AND ENFORCE THE LAW. MEXICO WILL HAVE TO FIND ITS OWN WAY OUT OF THE MESS IT IS IN. WE HAVE OUR OWN PROBLEMS AND CITIZENS TO WORRY ABOUT.

Agreed RedPony. I think the theory that free trade reduces illegal immigration was dealt a fatal blow with NAFTA.

Mexico will build bigger, better and more MODERN ports than what we have on the West coast and this will cause our ports to be shut down and Americans to lose jobs. Mexihole already has our Hershey plant there, they have a lot of our farming industry there, they have the textile and factory jobs there that once were here and that hasn't stopped them from coming into the USA illegally!

You wanna know why? That bit about needing to "find work to feed their starving families" is nothing but a bunch of BULL CRAP! The REAL TRUTH is they come here for the freebies this idiotic government is stupid enough to hand out to them. They come here for the subsidized living they can have here. Welfare, free health care, free education, food stamps, housing, excellent FREE NATAL CARE, etc.. Those people in Mexihole aren't "STARVING" anymore than anyone in this country is literally "starving!" You want to see "starving" look to Darfur!

I've seen too many hefty beer guts and lard a$$es scaling that border fence and trapsing through the desert to believe anyone in Mexihole is "starving." People who are truly starving can barely hold their own heads up, much less jump over a border fence and play hide and seek all night long with Border Patrol agents.

Illegal aliens are liars, con artists but most of all CRIMINALS and we've been stupid enough to eat their sob stories up hook, line and sinker!



Starving!



Not starving!

Originally Posted by redpony353

Originally Posted by Richard

Despite the immigration control and reduction movement being riddled with neo-mercs I am informed enough to realize this port project and expansion of Mazatlan, Manzanillo Los Mochis and Puerto Diaz Ordaz is a good thing. If we want the illegal aliens to leave and more not to come here and to work in their country instead Mexico needs economic expansion of this kind.

I HAVE TO DISAGREE. THIS WILL TAKE PORT JOBS AWAY FROM AMERICAN CITIZENS IN THIS COUNTRY. ALSO IT MIGHT TAKE JOBS FROM AMERICAN TRUCK DRIVERS AS WELL, IF MEXICAN TRUCKS ARE ALLOWED TO BRING THIS STUFF UP HERE.

I SAY NO TO THIS. IT REALLY IS NOT OUR PROBLEM TO SUPPLY JOBS FOR MEXICAN CITIZENS. IT IS OUR PROBLEM TO SUPPLY JOBS TO AMERICAN CITIZENS.

WE HAVE TO BUY AMERICAN TO THWART THIS DEAL. IF WE DONT BUY IT THEY WONT SHIP IT.

AND JUST BECAUSE MEXICANS HAVE A HARD TIME FINDING JOBS IN MEXICO, DOES NOT MEAN WE HAVE TO LET THEM COME UP HERE.

BUILD THE WALL AND ENFORCE THE LAW. MEXICO WILL HAVE TO FIND ITS OWN WAY OUT OF THE MESS IT IS IN. WE HAVE OUR OWN PROBLEMS AND CITIZENS TO WORRY ABOUT.

I totally agree . This is a Major step to the NAU and the Trans-Con highway also. America is being ripped by Greedy Elites and slimmy politicans to her end if we let them .
Besides 5000 port jobs in Mexico still leaves tens of millions Illegals in the once great U.S . The Huge bailouts Dubya gave to Wall Street Bankers to cover their crooked butts was close to the last nail in the coffin. The more our government borrows the more we are dismantled . It's a plan that don't include you and me .
btw: if your informed you already know what the last nail will be . hint , well there be an election ? Dirty bomb , what city ? they have told us all about it and their plans .

Just a way for china to by pass having to pay the higher wages to American workers and to get their good to walmart cheaper.