Costco Wholesale Corp., the Issaquah, Wash.-based national warehouse retailer, brings about 60 percent of its products through the local ports, but has diverted goods through Ensenada and some other ports during past labor disputes. Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said the company only rarely diverts cargo, but is willing to move its business to other ports if they become more operationally efficient.
“Ultimately, cost and time of delivery are the two main issues,” he said. “What is the least expensive and most efficient way to get the goods to their destination?”
That attitude is behind plans for a new port project proposed in the Baja bay of Punta Colonet, about 150 miles south of Tijuana. Mexican officials envision a sprawling port in the pristine bay that would attract Asian goods and serve both Mexico and the large U.S. Midwest and East Coast markets.
The project is drawing serious interest from major corporations and while observers expect construction contracts to be awarded perhaps before the end of the year, progress has stagnated of late.
Omaha, Neb.-based rail line Union Pacific Corp. was set to partner with port developer Hutchison Port Holdings Ltd., a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd., to bid on the project, but ended the partnership earlier this year.
Union Pacific spokesman James Barnes said the company decided “for strategic reasons” not to bid jointly, but he declined to give more details.
Nevertheless, the company is still monitoring the project and observers expect that either Union Pacific or Fort Worth, Tex.-based rail line Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. will ultimately bid when the proposal moves forward.
“This would be building something from scratch. (Planning and construction) could go on easily another 10 years,” Bingham said. “But there’s real potential for it to be a viable port in the long term.”
