BMI's Executive Summary

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Mexico will build three new airports serving beach resorts and construct thousands of miles of new roads as part of a US$37bn transport facelift launched on July 20 2007. The five-year public-private infrastructure package also includes upgrades for sea ports and Mexico's creaking railway network. Unveiling the ambitious plan, President Felipe Calderón said new airports would be built at the growing tourist regions at the Sea of Cortes and Ensenada on the Pacific, and at the Riviera Maya, south of the Caribbean resort of Cancun. Another 31 airports will be expanded, including those at Cancun and Toluca, an industrial city close to the capital, Calderón said. Transport Minister Luis Tellez said the package envisaged investments of MXN287bn (US$26bn) in highways, the first major road building plan in more than 12 years. The infrastructure drive also includes expected investments of MXN49bn (US$4.6bn) in railways and MXN71bn (US$6.6bn) in ports over the next five years. BMI's newly released Mexico Freight Transport Report notes that Calderón will encourage continuing growth in trade with the US and Canada – Mexico's North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners – and has specifically committed himself to boosting highway construction across the country. There are also signs that despite delays Mexican trucking companies will eventually get access to the US market. We are forecasting average annual road haulage growth in 2007-2011, measured in million-tonne km (mntkm), of 4.2%. Maritime freight growth twill average 4.3% per annum (not least due to the increased movement of cargo through Mexican ports to avoid congestion in US ports). Over all modes, Mexican freight growth will average 5.0% in 2007-2011, ahead of GDP expansion of 3.6% a year. BMI concludes that the value of the Mexican transport and communications will rise to US$123.2bn by 2011, representing 11.5% of the country's total GDP.

During the presidential election campaign Calderón promised to invest in building a more extensive highway network across the country and developing tourism. He also spoke of trying to emulate the big transport infrastructure investment surges in European economies like Ireland and Spain, which in his view underpin their current strong growth rates. BMI rates Mexico's regulatory and competitive environments highly in relation to other regional markets. In this report, in fact, we set the country's overall freight business environment score at 43 (out of a maximum of 70). This is one of the highest scores among the major Latin American freight markets that we cover, and is also comfortably above the regional average, which stands at 38.9.

We predict that the total value of transport and communications GDP will rise to US$123.2bn in nominal terms by 2011, representing 11.5% of Mexico's GDP. The transport and communications sector employed 1.89mn people, or 4.6% of the labour force, in 2006. We see that figure rising to 2.01mn by 2011, although as a proportion of the labour force it will remain constant at 4.6%.

Competitive Landscape for Latin America Freight Transport Reports: Sample of Companies Ranked

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Analysis of latest projects across the freight transport sector – road, rail, air, sea, logistics – including market overview which provides an outline of the key elements driving development. SWOT analysis of the state’s business environment, transport sector, politics and economics, which carefully evaluates the short- and medium-term issues facing the industry.

Network of Latin American Freight Transport Sources

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BMI's Latin American Freight Transport Reports are based on an extensive network of multilateral organisations, government departments, freight transport industry associations, chambers of commerce and company reports. Information sources include: