Mexico-US rail transport exports down 26.2%

Exports by rail transport between Mexico and the United States registered a 26.2% year-on-year drop in the first half of the current year, to $ 30.07 billion.

In the same period, the two main companies in the sector, Ferrocarril Mexicano (Ferromex) and Kansas City Southern de México (KCSM) registered reductions of 1.2 and 3.1%, respectively, in the movement of rail freight in Mexico, at annual rates.

Mexico’s rail transport moved 58 million 962,000 tons in the first six months of the year in the country, a year-on-year decrease of 4.3 percent.

Of the total trade in the first half of the current year, exports by rail transport from Mexico to the United States totaled 18,851 million dollars, a decrease of 28.2%; while in the opposite direction they totaled 11,219 million dollars, a decrease of 22.8%, at interannual rates.

Exports by rail transport

Mexico registered a record in its trade surplus of merchandise in June, of 5.547 million dollars, the highest until then since January 1993, the last data in which the Bank of Mexico has statistics online.

The favorable balance was the result of exports for 33,076.5 million dollars, a decrease of 12.8%, and imports for 27,529.8 million dollars, a decrease of 22.2%, at an annual rate.

Of the total bilateral flows, exports by rail transport from Mexico to the United States comprised 62.7% and conversely, the remaining 37.3%, according to data from the Department of Transportation.

Mexico has a freight rail system owned by the national government and operated by various entities under concessions granted by the national government.

The rail system provides freight and passenger services throughout the country (although most of the service is freight oriented).

The network connects the main industrial centers with ports and with rail connections on the United States border.

In all of 2019, exports by rail transport between Mexico and the United States grew 5%, to 82.269 million dollars. From south to north, they totaled 53.272 million dollars, an increase of 10%; while from north to south they were for 28,998 million dollars, a decrease of 3.2%, at annual rates.