Dive Brief:
- Ryder System has opened a new, multiclient logistics facility in El Paso, Texas, as the third-party logistics provider capitalizes on growing regional demand and cross-border activity, according to a press release.
- The newly built 50,000 square-foot, 20 dock-door facility seeks to take advantage of its location to serve cross-border shippers. It is situated close to the Ysleta Port of Entry, which links to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico; within 15 miles of the El Paso International Airport; and along I-10, a critical East-West U.S. truck lane.
- Ryder plans to use facility to offer shippers in the automotive, high technology, and other industries a wide variety of services, such as cross-docking, ambient storage, consolidation and deconsolidation.
Dive Insight:
Ryder’s expansion in the El Paso-Juarez region is both proactive and reactive, Frank Bateman, vice president of supply chain operations at Ryder, said in an interview.
On the one hand, Bateman said the 3PL’s footprint expansion was dictated by customers’ needs. In this case, Ryder began looking to expand over a year and a half ago, as some customers asked Ryder for additional infrastructure in the region. However, the company is also responding to what they see as continued investment from manufacturers in Mexico, thanks in part to increased interest in nearshoring.
When Ryder announced its new Laredo facility, the company told Trucking Dive it felt there was business to be won in border regions, as the rise in nearshoring activity also meant customers would need additional logistics support. The El Paso facility’s location specifically helps offer that, according to the press release.
“If you look at the latest numbers, U.S. trade with Mexico is at nearly $800 billion annually, and the Ysleta port processes about nine to 10% of that,” Bateman said in the press release. “It’s second only to the Port of Laredo, Texas, which processes nearly 40% of goods crossing the border – and where we recently opened another new logistics center.”
Bateman dug further into the warehouse location strategy in the interview, explaining how the company’s two recent expansions in Laredo and El Paso serve different markets in Mexico, all of which have seen growing investments.
“If you were to compare like a Laredo versus El Paso, Laredo is really the corridor going into the interior of Mexico,” Bateman said. “But El Paso kind of acts as multiple corridors: You have the corridor going into western Mexico, but you also have that East-West corridor [across the U.S. Southwest].”
Shippers’ varying logistics needs is part of why Ryder set the facility up in a way that can offer multiple services. While some shippers may need a space to transload goods from a Mexico container to a U.S. ones, others may need an El Paso facility for storage or final distribution.
While Ryder has had operations in El Paso for decades, its expansion comes as a flurry of logistics competitors increase their cross-border presence expecting nearshoring will be a boon for logistics. The wave of investments is also a reason CBRE named El Paso as one of the hottest warehouse markets to watch in 2024.
