Borderlands Mexico is a weekly summary of developments in the world of US-Mexico cross-border shipping and trade. This week: Nearshoring drives CH Robinson’s expansion in Texas. Safran invests $115 million to expand aerospace operations in Querétaro. And an $80 million procurement campus is taking shape in Tucson.
Nearshoring drives CH Robinson’s expansion in Texas
CH Robinson is expanding its US-Mexico border footprint with 450,000 square feet of warehousing and cross-docking capacity in El Paso, Texas.
The brokerage giant said the investment will strengthen its position as one of North America’s largest offshore logistics providers as onshore approaches accelerate and shippers demand more flexible supply chains.
“We continue to see El Paso emerge as a critical gateway not only for high-tech transportation, but also automotive, medical devices and healthcare products,” Jay Cornmesser, vice president of Mexico cross-border services at CH Robinson, said in a statement.
CH Robinson (NASDAQ: CHRW) is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, with more than 300 offices and more than 15,000 employees in North America, Europe, Asia and South America. The logistics provider handles 37 million shipments annually and has been operating in Mexico for 35 years.
The company’s latest move along the border comes as cross-border business continues to grow. Mexico was the US’s largest trading partner for the second year in a row in 2024 with a record-breaking $840 billion.
U.S.-Mexico trade has increased 21 percent so far this year to $507 billion, surpassing the 2024 level, according to the Census Bureau.
Cornmesser said increased production in Mexico has increased the volume of shipments through the key gateway of Ciudad Juarez, directly across the border from El Paso.
“Juarez, just across the border, has a significant maquiladora production base. Our expansion in El Paso is a direct response to the evolving needs of our customers in today’s dynamic business landscape,” he added.
The El Paso expansion complements the company’s ongoing growth in Laredo, Texas and its broader strategy to build a scalable cross-border network amid changing global business patterns. In 2023, CH Robinson opened a 400,000-square-foot frontier center in Laredo.
In September, CH Robinson launched US-Mexico freight integration services with the goal of reducing freight costs by 40%.
CH Robinson is not the only logistics company expanding its operations across the border. Last week, Kuehne+Nagel announced a 217,431-square-foot facility in El Paso, next to its current site to support growing U.S. and Mexican business flows.
Safran invests $115 million to expand aerospace operations in Querétaro
According to Mexico Business News, Safran Group announced an investment of more than 115 million dollars for the development of three aerospace production and maintenance facilities in Querétaro, Mexico.
The investment will create 238 specialized jobs and strengthen the region’s growing aviation cluster, officials said.
Safran SA is a French multinational aerospace, defense and security company founded in Paris in 1896.
An $80 million logistics campus is taking shape in Tucson
Lincoln Property has completed the first phase of its I-10 International Logistics Campus in Tucson, Arizona, according to a news release.
The $80 million Phase I includes two 373,811-square-foot Class A warehouse buildings on a 79-acre site near Tucson International Airport and the I-10/Valencia interchange.
When fully built out, the campus will be more than 1 million square feet, designed for e-commerce, logistics and manufacturing users.
Features include air-cooled infrastructure, 32-foot clear heights and foreign trade zone benefits that offer access to more than 46 million consumers within a 500-mile radius.
The post Borderlands Mexico: Nearshoring sparks CH Robinson’s Texas expansion appeared first on FreightWaves.
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