Santa Ana Mayor Touts Mexico Sea Lane
By CHRIS CZIBORR
Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido has a big vision born of one of his pet projects, the International Business Center in his city’s downtown.
Pulido is pushing for an ocean cargo route from Los Angeles to Manzanillo on Mexico’s Pacific Coast between Vallarta and Acapulco.
The sea lane would be a “maritime bridge” that stands to change the way California does business with Mexico, Pulido contends.
Forget about crowded truck and train crossings along the California-Mexico border, he says. Opening ocean shipping to trade with Mexico stands to boost business between the two neighbors, he argues.
The sea lane is “going to change the physical constraints of doing trade,as far as California is concerned,with Mexico,” Pulido said.
As it is, most of Orange County’s shipments to Mexico, and those of California, go by rail or truck. For exports to Baja California’s border plants,big customers of many OC companies,that’s not an issue.
But when it comes to tapping central Mexico, the nation’s industrial heartland and population centers, you’re talking about a long haul. It can take a week or longer to send goods by land from California to Mexico City.
That’s one reason why California’s trade with Mexico lags that of Texas, according to Pulido. In 2000, Texas sent $51 billion worth of goods to Mexico, three times California’s total.
“California’s roads and railroads are such an issue,” Pulido said. “But if we can develop the sea connection, we can float goods up and down the coast.”
Pulido said he’s working on developing ties between the Port of Los Angeles and its counterpart in Manzanillo. So far, Pulido’s team has an unnamed Norwegian shipper promising to run a barge on the proposed route, he said.
What’s in it for Pulido? He’s looking to boost Santa Ana’s International Business Center (see related story). Early last year, he scored a coup by getting the center to host Mexico’s first U.S. trade center.
Since then, he’s been working to draw other players to the center. Among the recent arrivals: Nacional Financiera, Mexico’s development bank.
“We have a growing number of players,” Pulido said. “I’m still getting all these guys to coordinate.”
Pulido’s goal is to make the center a gateway for trade with Mexico, and that’s where the sea lane effort comes in.
“I want to see that it becomes a hub, a think tank and a place where matches get made for companies looking for partners,whether that’s joint ventures, vendors or purchasers or whatever the case may be,” he said.
But the sea lane is no slam-dunk. The effort faces several obstacles, including competition from entrenched rail and truck networks.
And it takes longer to ship by sea,about two weeks in the case of Manzanillo. The advantage: sea shipping is cheaper.
“Ships are more cost-effective but would be slower because it doesn’t take as long to ship goods across the land border,” said Roberto Gallegos, a customs broker with Sanyo Customs Brokerage in San Diego. “Anyone concerned with time will still prefer shipping by land.”
Barry Sedlik, chief executive of the World Trade Association Los Angeles-Long Beach, is more critical.
“The Port of Los Angeles still has many bottlenecks that are constraining trade flows,” Sedlik said. “The prospect of adding ocean shipments to Mexico as a way of alleviating truck traffic may be something that’s desirable. But the economics would have to be investigated as to whether such an alternate route beyond what’s currently in place would make sense.”
The Port of Los Angeles mainly handles shipping between North America and Asia. Shippers do use the Manzanillo route, with Los Angeles being a port of call between Mexico and Asia.
Whether a Mexico sea lane would fly, er, sail, comes down shipping companies.
An official with one shipping company, Maersk Logistics USA Inc., part of Denmark’s A.P. Moller Group, said he’s open to the idea.
“It’s probably needed,” said Marshall Sack, a general manager with Maersk’s Inglewood office. “Even incoming lanes from the Far East dock at Los Angeles and then product has to be moved inland to Mexico. There are lanes coming out of Manzanillo, but they have to call at L.A. before going on to the Far East.”
While busy, land routes to Mexico aren’t saturated yet, according to Gallegos of Sanyo Customs. San Ysidro-Tijuana is the world’s busiest border crossing, but commercial shippers often use less congested crossings to the east, such as Calexico-Mexicali.
On Broadway
Miguel Pulido is looking beyond Mexico for Santa Ana’s International Business Center.
The mayor said he has made overtures to Canada about setting up a trade office in the center at 900 N. Broadway.
“Because of NAFTA, I think that’s a possibility,” he said.
Britain, Vietnam and Spain,a big investor in Mexico,also are prospects, according to Pulido.
“We’re just looking to continue to build,” he said. “And I’m trying get other countries to have representation within the center. We want everyone to understand better what the center is and how municipalities can utilize it.”
Pulido also said he is looking at getting Mexican President Vicente Fox and mayors from California and Mexico to meet at the center in the summer.
So far, the center has attracted the U.S. Commerce Department, the Orange County Small Business Development Center, Rancho Santiago Community College’s California-Mexico Assistance Trade Center and a trade office from the University of California, Los Angeles
The center also is looking to get more activity from the state’s Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency, Pulido said.
“The agency has corresponding offices in Mexico City and throughout the world, and I want to bring that component in as well,” he said. “California is the fifth largest economy in the world and I want to bring that network into the center,that’s something I’m working with agency Secretary Lon Hatamiya and Gov. Davis on.”
,Chris Cziborr
