near-shoring

WESLACO, Texas - A senior executive with Killam Development says demand for industrial real estate in Mexico and the southern US is accelerating with his company receiving inquires from Alaska, Indiana and Illinois.

Rene Alcalá, director of business development, RGV leasing and sales for Killam, was a panelist at the recent State of the RGV Real Estate Forum hosted by the Rio Grande Valley Partnership and RGV First. Killam is developing a large industrial park near the Anzalduas International Bridge in Mission.

“The demand for industrial real estate in Mexico and the southern US is accelerating as we saw with Carlos Marquez’ and Carlos Telles’ presentations,” Alcalá said.

Industrial real estate specialists Carlos Marquez and Carlos Telles were on the same panel as Alcalá.

“Within the next five to ten years we expect to see an interconnected web of manufacturing, assembly, warehouse logistic facilities emerge as these corporations seek to optimize their supply chains,” Alcalá said.

Alcalá asked those in the audience if they remember watching news during COVID and seeing shipping containers stretched out for miles at sea trying to get into the Port of Los Angeles. Supply chains were disrupted and some products were unavailable in the stores, he recalled.

“So that is what we want to avoid. The risk mitigation of having to depend on sea transportation of these products rather than buying land (along the border of the US or Mexico). (It) is a lot easier (to buy landO and a lot more cost effective. The distances are shorter. So those are some of the benefits that we see with near-shoring.”

Editor's Note: Go to the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service website to read the full story.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

MCALLEN, Texas - Francisco J. Peña-Valdés is an attorney with Cacheaux Cavazos & Newton, a company that has, for over 25 years, provided integrated legal services to international businesses.

In an in-depth audio and video interview with the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service, Peña-Valdés discussed the work of Cacheaux Cavazos & Newton, the other international trader associations he is involved in, the history of near-shoring, and his projections for the Rio Grande Valley.

On the subject of near-shoring, Peña-Valdés said that, for him, near-shoring started when Trump administration started hitting China with higher tariffs and taxes. He said a client from California would call him and say, “oh, we're going to expand our facility. But instead of sending it to China, we're going to open a plant over there in Monterey or Reynosa or Matamoros, or another city in Mexico. So, I think Trump began the cascade and everything after that began moving very, very fast.”

Another reason for the surge in near-shoring, Peña-Valdés explained, was USMCA and a provision in the treaty that required a higher percentage of the parts used to assemble an automobile be sourced from North America. 

“We were sourcing a lot of products from China, aluminum, steel, electronics and whatnot,” Peña-Valdés. “And then the CHIPS Act came in and said, based on national security, chips must be manufactured in the U.S.”

Asked if the Rio Grande Valley might benefit from this legislation by landing a chip manufacturing plant, Peña-Valdés responded that Indian software developer Zoho is already here.

“It’s a good thing that Zoho is coming this way. Not only because they are going to provide good employment. It is going to provide a different vibe for the area,” Peña-Valdés said.

“By bringing these type of companies (to the Valley), they are going to set a precedent. Other companies, smaller companies, are going to look at us here in the RGV and say, I'm not even going to do due diligence. Because Zoho, a very important company, is setting up here, they are going to say, they already did their due diligence, so let's go. We are going to start landing companies here. We're going to start seeing more and more in that area. That's my take on that.”

A trend that is already happening, Peña-Valdés said, is the arrival of even more Chinese manufacturing firms in the Monterrey area.  

“They already have one specific industrial park just for Chinese companies outside Monterrey, going, like, north west of Monterey. Big Chinese companies are settling in Monterey. So other Chinese companies, of smaller capacity, they're not even doing their due diligence. They are just going in there because this bigger company is already doing it.”

Here is an audio recording of the interview the Guardian conducted with Peña-Valdés. It is the first in a three-part series.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

MCALLEN, Texas - Mexico expert Duncan Wood says the state he is paying most attention to in Mexico these days is Nuevo León.

Wood is vice president for strategy and new initiatives at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., and senior advisor to the Mexico Institute, which is housed within the Wilson Center.

Wood spoke at three events in the Rio Grande Valley recently. At each one he praised the leadership of Nuevo León governor, Samuel Alejandro García Sepúlveda.

Wood handed out a slideshow print-out at a breakfast event hosted by the CEO Club at the McAllen Country Club. It showed that Nuevo León is currently capturing 72.2 percent of Mexico’s near-shoring. The data was sourced from GBM and CRB.

Here are Wood’s remarks about Nuevo León and its “Tesla moment.”

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

LAREDO, Texas - Renowned international trade and finance expert Gerry Schwebel says Texas need to invest more in land port of entry infrastructure.

The executive vice president, corporate international division, for IBC Bank says failure to make the investment will result in the state failing to capitalize on the current near-shoring phenomenon in Mexico. 

Schwebel is based in Laredo. Across the Rio Grande from his city, the state of Nuevo León is currently securing 72.2 percent of near-shoring activity. That is according to GBM and CRB data.

The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service interviewed Schwebel at a recent transportation event in Laredo. The banker was asked to comment on the planned expansion of the Laredo–Colombia Solidarity International Bridge, in readiness for the EV manufacturing plant Tesla is building in Monterrey. 

Here is the interview.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - When renowned Mexico expert Duncan Wood last came to the Rio Grande Valley to speak about that country’s economy and its governance he was not optimistic. 

It was in January, 2020, and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had just started his second year in office. Wood spoke at the McAllen Performing Arts Center at an event hosted by IBC Bank and the Rio Grande Valley Partnership. He said he was concerned about AMLO reneging on much-heralded energy reforms that were facilitating large foreign investments into Mexico.

Fast forward three and a half years and Wood, senior advisor to the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC., is now much more bullish. 

“If we can get the federal government in Mexico to work not just with the U.S. government, but with Mexican northern states to make sure that they have not just the energy they need, the infrastructure they need, the human capital they need, and if we can have that conversation in a cross-border way, the future is extremely bright,” Wood said. 

“Not just for Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, but, in fact, for Texas, for Brownsville, for McAllen. All the way along the border we will see opportunities exploding. So for the first time in, I would say, more than five years. I am extraordinarily optimistic. 

“I’m optimistic about Mexico. I'm optimistic about the United States. I'm optimistic about Texas. I'm actually optimistic about geopolitics, even though it is a highly complicated time. How far we've come in just a couple of years blows my mind on a daily basis.”

Wood made those remarks during a speech about near-shoring and re-shoring that was hosted by the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation and held at Texas Southmost College.

Here are his remarks in full.

For the full story go to the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service website.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.