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VOICE OF THE INDEPENDENT, MARCH 2015

11

Technology key for forwarders in Mexico


MEXICO is ideally located
as a conduit for trade not
only to the lucrative North
American market, but also
for the burgeoning
economies of Central and
Southern America. It has
become an important
country for investment by
both US and European
companies and this has led
to a presence being
established by a number of
ambitious independent
forwarders from these
markets.
One of these is Delmar
International that has
strategically expanded its
core operations in Canada
and the US to new locations
around the
world. Latin
America is seen
as a great
opportunity,
according to
Managing
Director,
Jihad El
Khoury.
Naturally
most of
Mexicos trade,
in fact up to 90
per cent, is with
the US and
Canada.
However, there
are huge
opportunities to grow
logistics services to
Southern and Central
America to markets such as
Brazil, Chile and Colombia.
Mexico is becoming an
important supplier of goods
to these markets.
To serve the US market
Delmar has invested in new
infrastructure as it realises
its ambition to become an
important player. Laredo is
the main border crossing,
with some 11,000 trucks
crossing per day. We now
have a 70,000 sq ft
warehouse to meet the
market demand. The
volumes of freight to the US
are very buoyant. However,
trade with Europe remains
slow due to the weaknesses
in some major Eurozone
countries.
It is not only exports from
Mexico that are growing, El
Khoury says that imports of
raw materials from Asia,
used for the fabrication of
finished goods, are also on

a strong upwards trend,


which he says provides
more exciting prospects.
As Delmar grows its
footprint in Latin America
(it also operates an office in
Brazil), it has established a
useful knowledge of how
these markets work and the
challenges forwarders face.
The new government has
been proactive in addressing
the pressing issue of cargo
security in Mexico. Theft
and other cargo crime is
something we all need to
take seriously and a number
of measures have been
introduced to improve this
and therefore ease the fears
of foreign investors. One
measure taken is
a major
strengthening in
the capabilities
of the rail
infrastructure.
Many
companies are
now using this
for domestic
transport, as it
is more secure
than trucking. In
addition, there
are significantly
more military
checkpoints and
these measures
helped drive
down cargo crime by 25 per
cent last year.
El Khoury says that the
trend towards near-shoring
to the US market continues
and is attracting a lot of
foreign investment. Many
global companies are now
using Mexico as a hub for
exporting to the US.
Automotive is very strong,
for example Audi are
currently building a big new
plant, joining other names
such as Ford and General
Motors. It is not only the
OEMs but also many tier 1
and tier 2 suppliers to the
industry that are moving
here. Some 155 companies
have opened operations in
the centre of the country
that has become established
as the automotive centre of
excellence. In addition, the
healthcare and food and
beverage sectors are also
growing fast and there are
numerous infrastructure
projects.
Although there are plenty

Many
global
companies
are now
using
Mexico as
a hub for
exporting
to the US

Jihad El Khoury
Delmar International

of opportunities, El Khoury
says that competition among
logistics companies is fierce.
It is a challenging
environment as competition
intensifies and demand with
Europe remains weak. To
succeed you need to
differentiate yourself from
the competition. You need
to offer something extra
alongside cost-effective
logistics and high service
levels for which independent
forwarders excel. For us it is
technology that is the key
and this offers us an edge
over the competition. We
have developed our own
systems that integrate
seamlessly with our
customers providing them

with outstanding visibility of


their operations and their
shipments.
The system can be
adapted to meet the
particular needs of each
customer and all the
information is available
online on a clear, colour
coded easily navigable
screen. From purchase
order management through
to full track and trace of
individual shipments, the
system is intuitive and
responsive to customer
needs. Customers view a
mirror image of our system
so there is full transparency.
They can choose 1, 5 or 10
reporting milestones and we
manage that for them.

The advanced technology


Delmar offers not only helps
them win business from
small and medium sized
exporters/importers, but
also helps them take on the
multinational freight
forwarders. The
multinationals have a big
footprint in Mexico,
however, they
compete on price
not service. We
remain aggressive
on price, but
offering that
personalised service,
combined with
advanced technology
and systems, makes us
attractive to many shippers.
This has allowed us to grow

our market share to North


America. Today if you dont
have the technology it is
hard to compete with the
multinationals.

Latin America

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