US rail freight company Kansas City Southern (KSC) plans to link SW International Gateway Business Park, located close to Houston, Texas to Mexico by rail and road. In addition, KSC, will offer freight forwarding services between both countries, avoiding the congested ports of Texas and Louisiana, such as Houston and New Orleans.

The business centre will be developed by Stonemont Financial Group, Ridgeline Property Group and Kansas City Southern and NAI Partners. It comprises of manufacturing, warehousing and distribution installations. At a budget of 146 million Euros the facility will see an extension with 218 hectares.

US-Mexico trade

The business centre lies at a 480 kilometre distance from the New Laredo border with Mexico, and has a facility to load goods on train and truck. By train, goods will be transported from East Saint Louis, in the state of Illinois to Lazaro Cardenas (Pacific coast) and Veracruz (Caribbean coast). It will be used as a base to export American oil and gas to Mexico and Mexican cars and fresh products to the US.

The facility will have a capacity for staging 200 wagons at the same. KSC, which has a Mexican subsidiary, will offer freight forwarding services such as customs clearance, transhipment, multimodal services, etc. to move containers between both countries.