Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments on the planet of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and commerce. This week: New Mexico lands first main auto elements manufacturing plant; FedEx closing facility in Texas, eliminating 58 jobs; Nippon Categorical opens logistics warehouse in Arizona; and San Diego customs agent charged with taking bribes from drug smugglers.
New Mexico lands first main auto elements manufacturing plant
Taiwan-based Hota Industrial Manufacturing has signed an settlement to construct an auto elements manufacturing unit in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
The $72 million facility can be on 30 acres in Westpark Industrial Park and can create 350 jobs. Building is scheduled to start in 2024.
“Hota selected New Mexico’s Borderplex due to the provision of fascinating land, the workforce, and our logistical benefits that gives entry to each Mexico’s factories and North American prospects,” Alicia J. Keyes, New Mexico’s financial growth cupboard secretary, stated in a information launch.
The Hota Industrial Manufacturing plant in Santa Teresa opens a brand new chapter for the state’s financial system.
“There are a number of machine outlets scattered round New Mexico — and Boeing, BlueHalo, Intel, Admiral Cable Inc. and Prent Corp. have manufacturing right here — however I do imagine that Hota can be the primary giant auto elements manufacturing unit within the state,” Bruce Krasnow, spokesman for the New Mexico Financial Improvement Division, instructed FreightWaves.
Hota is Taiwan’s largest producer of gears and shafts for automobiles, bikes and heavy-duty business vehicles, producing about 20 million automotive transmission gears yearly, in accordance with the corporate’s web site.
Hota Industrial Manufacturing is Taiwan’s largest maker of gears and shafts for automobiles, bikes and heavy-duty business vehicles. (Picture: Hota)
The corporate’s shoppers embrace automakers Ford, Normal Motors, BMW and Tesla, in addition to automotive provider BorgWarner.
Hota’s manufacturing unit can be about 6 miles from the Santa Teresa port of entry, a business and noncommercial gateway on the U.S.-Mexico border. Greater than 160,000 business vehicles handed via the Santa Teresa crossing in 2022.
Santa Teresa is about 20 minutes from El Paso, Texas. The world, generally generally known as the Borderplex, additionally contains Ciudad Juarez in Mexico.
New Mexico officers touted current infrastructure investments as catalysts serving to to draw funding alongside the border, together with $700 million in enhancements introduced final 12 months. One of many largest upgrades can be a $170 million enlargement on the Santa Teresa port of entry, which features a congressional request for a presidential allow for a rail bypass.
The enlargement contains enhancements on roads and highways to assist visitors movement and commerce operations within the Santa Teresa, El Paso and Juarez areas.
“Hota is one in every of a number of new firms who see New Mexico as an answer to fortify and diversify their international provide chain,” Keyes stated.
Different firms lately opening amenities or saying investments in New Mexico embrace Franklin Mountain Packaging, Louisiana Pepper Alternate and Oro LLC.
The New Mexico manufacturing unit can be Hota’s first manufacturing facility exterior of Asia. The Taipei, Taiwan-based firm has greater than 1,500 international workers and places of work in Europe and Mexico, in addition to Detroit and Los Angeles.
Hota had been contemplating a web site in Texas to open its first manufacturing facility within the U.S., in accordance with a 2021 report from the Monetary Instances. In the identical report, Hota officers stated the enlargement into the U.S. was banking on elevated demand for electrical automobile elements.
FedEx closing facility in Texas, eliminating 58 jobs
FedEx is completely closing a facility in Temple, Texas, and shedding 58 staff by Sept. 4, in accordance with a Employee Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act discover filed with the state.
Firm officers didn’t present a purpose for the closure. The layoffs embrace 48 couriers, two managers, two service brokers, 5 handlers and a dangerous-goods agent.
Some workers will stay employed after the closure and be shifted to close by FedEx areas, firm officers stated.
The closure follows closings in Mississippi and Georgia, the place the corporate is completely shuttering amenities and eliminating positions.
Nippon Categorical opens logistics warehouse in Arizona
Nippon Categorical lately opened the Mesa Logistics Heart in Mesa, Arizona.
The 58,354-square-foot warehouse facility goals to serve prospects within the semiconductor chip business. Mesa Logistics Heart contains 14 truck bays and is about quarter-hour from Phoenix Sky Harbor Worldwide Airport, in accordance with a information launch.
The warehouse provides the environmental situations — together with temperature and humidity ranges in addition to mud and static management — essential for dealing with semiconductors and digital elements, Nippon officers stated.
Tokyo-based Nippon Categorical is a world logistics providers firm with 739 worldwide areas and greater than 33,000 workers.
San Diego customs agent charged with taking bribes from drug smugglers
U.S. Customs and Border Safety officer Leonard Darnell George has been indicted on fees that he took bribes to permit drug-filled automobiles to move via the U.S.-Mexico border, in accordance with federal prosecutors.
George faces a cost of receiving bribes by a public official and two conspiracy fees for trafficking and distributing medication, in accordance with the U.S. lawyer’s workplace in San Diego.
Prosecutors allege George, together with Mario Angel Gutierrez, Esteban Galvan and 4 unnamed defendants, allowed automobiles containing methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine and heroin to enter the U.S. from Mexico.
If convicted of the bribery cost, George faces as much as 15 years in federal jail. George and the opposite defendants face doable life in jail if convicted on the conspiracy fees.
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