The world’s busiest border crossing just got a lot busier.
The San Ysidro-Tijuana border is seeing heavier-than-normal delays amid tightened security after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.
The crossing south of San Diego was closed entirely on the day of the attacks, stranding volumes of cargo and thousands of people who go between California and Mexico on a daily basis.
While the border reopened soon after the attacks, the average crossing last week was taking two to three hours by vehicle and as much as five hours by walking. Before the terrorist attacks, walking across that border typically took only a few minutes.
The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, U.S. Customs, police and other law enforcement agencies now reportedly are checking every single car and every person going to the U.S. The result has been a temporary wrinkle in the bustling trade that flows over the border. Orange County companies exported an estimated $2 billion in goods to Mexico last year, making the country OC’s top export market.
A big portion of local exports,including electronics and other components,go to border plants for assembly and then are re-exported back to the U.S. in TVs, computers and other finished goods.
Cal Pacifico, a Newport Beach production management company that oversees eight Tijuana assembly plants for U.S. companies, said it saw delays last week.
But for commercial shipments,most of which go through the Otay Mesa-Tijuana border just east of San Diego,the tie-ups weren’t severe, according to Jose de Jesus Calleros, Cal Pacifico’s Tijuana-based director.
“Fortunately for commercial shipping, U.S. Customs is not taking that much longer than normal to inspect trucks,” Calleros said. “Here at the border, though, the situation is chaotic for people returning to the U.S. It takes at least two to three hours to cross. Even for people walking, the inspection is very meticulous right now.”
Calleros said he expects the current border delay situation will remain unchanged for “the next few weeks or even months to come.”
Commercial crossings are facing average delays of about 30 minutes, according to Oscar Martinez, human resources manager at the Tijuana maquiladora,or border assembly plant,owned by El Segundo- based International Rectifier Corp.
Still, he said, “this is affecting tourism and commerce on both sides of the border.”
Moving materials and products in and out of Mexican assembly plants has become “much more complicated” since the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, he said.
“Air freight right now has become almost impossible,” Martinez said. “So inventories are going to be high and cash flow low. Cost-reduction activities are in order for us.”
The complications from the attacks come at a tough time for Baja California’s border plants. Unintended consequences from the North American Trade Free Trade Agreement and the slowing U.S. economy have prompted about 37,000 layoffs and closures of border plants. And Mexico’s peso,the relatively high value of which has hurt the country’s exporters,has swung wildly since the attacks.
Mexico’s border assembly plants account for about 40% of Mexico’s $140 billion in annual exports, most of which ends up in the U.S.
Irvine-based big-screen TV maker Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America Inc. has an assembly plant in Mexicali, a few hours east of Tijuana. The company uses the lower-profile border crossing at Calexico farther east of San Diego.
“Fortunately for us we don’t ship through Tijuana,” said Bob Perry, Mitsubishi’s marketing vice president. “We’re looking at no more than a couple hours of delays through Calexico, which really is business-as-normal as far as we’re concerned.”
But Mitsubishi, a unit of Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Corp., also brings in components on container ships and cargo plans.
“Those situations are a little bit different,” Perry said.
Ocean shipments since the Sep. 11 attacks now are facing delays of three to four days, Perry said.
“The components and other products we bring in on containers are subject to U.S. Customs boarding on every single container ship since the World Trade Center,” Perry said.
After a grounding of all aircraft two weeks ago, U.S. authorities began allowing incoming air freight at the start of last week.
“So that’s just starting to come back in,” Perry said. “And we don’t yet know whether there’s going to be increased inspection of cargo that comes off airplanes and is moved onto trucks or rail.”
While logistics have become more difficult, Perry said, there has been no impact on the company’s overall manufacturing business so far.
“Obviously we can’t take too many delays before it does begin to affect us,” Perry said. “But at this point we’re doing fine.” n