KC SmartPort Initiatives

Strategic Agreements with Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas, Ports on the West Coast of Mexico

Pacific Northwest to Kansas City Corridor

Strategic Agreements with Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas, Ports on the West Coast of Mexico

MANZANILLO

On November 9, 2004 officials from Port of Manzanillo, Mexico, and Kansas City signed a cooperative agreement that will create opportunities to ship goods from Manzanillo to Kansas City. This union will further enable KC SmartPort’s bid to be the United States’ leading inland trade center, as Manzanillo is the second-largest container port in Mexico.

LAZARO CARDENAS

Another historic moment took place on March 22, 2005, when officials representing Kansas City and the Port of Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, initiated a mutual effort to market and promote the shipment of goods from Lazaro Cardenas to Kansas City on a new trade route now referred to as the Lazaro Cardenas–Kansas City Corridor.

The Mexican port is becoming an alternate shipping route for Asian goods, as West Coast ports become increasingly congested. Lazaro Cardenas, on the southwest coast of Mexico, has capacity to expand its facilities, unlike West Coast ports, which are at capacity. Expansion at Lazaro Cardenas is not only beneficial to the port itself, but to Kansas City, which will see an increased amount of goods traveling on the corridor.

Please see the complete story on the PDF Brochure linked here entitled: Two Worlds - One Route.

Kansas City has been known as a transportation hub since the early 1800s due to its location in the center of the United States, and SmartPort will promote the corridor to maximize Lazaro Cardenas’ and Kansas City’s rankings in global trade.

Pacific Northwest to Kansas City Corridor

A vital asset to the Kansas City area is the Pacific Northwest Corridor. This Corridor is operated by Burlington Northern Santa Fe and is an important tool that links Kansas City and Northwest ports. Due to the increasing amount of goods that continue to flood West Coast Ports, Pacific Northwest ports provide efficient services to facilitate the movement of goods coming into the United States.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s vision is to provide transportation services to meet customers’ expectation. The Pacific Northwest Corridor is beneficial for shipping goods to Kansas City, enabling products to reach the center of the United States making it efficient for distributing products across the country.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe is significant for Kansas City in order to link the Midwest to the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma which have on-dock rail that comes direct to KC and can also avoid the congestion in Chicago. The Pacific Northwest Ports to Kansas City have leveraged recent increases in Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains to Kansas City. The increase in trains running on the company’s lines to Kansas City raises the amount of imports that Kansas City processes each year, which enhances Kansas City’s position as an inland port and international trade processing center.