➤ Approximately 80% of international trade moves by sea, making maritime disruptions a global concern with domino effects across economies.
➤ Mexico's Tehuantepec Isthmus Interoceanic Corridor is emerging as a multimodal logistics platform that complements the Panama Canal by offering industrial transformation capabilities.
➤ The traditional model prioritizing speed and low costs has proven vulnerable, prompting companies to seek more secure supply chains capable of operating during disruptions.
Companies are shifting their focus from efficiency to resilience in supply chains as disruptions from geopolitical tensions, climate change and operational challenges reshape global trade, according to Marina Puertas, a supply chain specialist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Supply chain disruptions have become a critical concern for global commerce as companies navigate an increasingly complex landscape. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of global supply chains, with closed ports, container shortages, skyrocketing freight rates and transit times that doubled or even tripled, leaving many companies unable to meet their commitments.
The shift from efficiency- to resilience-focused supply chains represents a fundamental change in how companies approach global trade. "Today it's no longer just about efficiency, but about resilience. Companies are no longer looking for the cheapest chain; they're looking for the safest one, the one that allows them to operate even when there are disruptions," Puertas told Horizontes de Latinoamérica.
"We're talking about disruptions that can generate losses in the millions, affecting companies, consumers and, in many cases, entire economies," she said.
The pandemic accelerated the adoption of nearshoring as companies sought to bring production closer to final markets. Mexico has emerged as a key protagonist in this shift due to its privileged geographic location and strong commercial integration with the US through the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
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Challenges and risk mitigation
"One of the biggest challenges in supply chains is that in international trade, approximately 80% of goods move by sea. And if something fails in this chain, it's not an isolated event, but has a global impact. It's like a domino effect," Puertas said.
Access to real-time intelligence covering maritime, commercial and company-level data enables organizations to anticipate risks and make informed decisions before disruptions result in significant losses. In this volatile context, nearshoring emerged as a risk mitigation strategy.
Besides the COVID-19 pandemic and rising geopolitical tensions in several regions worldwide, some of the most important trade routes have also faced environmental difficulties.
The Panama Canal, one of the main arteries of global trade connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, uses a system of locks that requires millions of liters of water per ship transit. Climate phenomena such as El Niño have led to reduced rainfall in Central America, resulting in lower reservoir levels and reduced operational capacity.
"If a ship cannot pass through Panama, it has to look for another route. That means more time, more costs, more uncertainty. Consequently, global trade starts to need alternatives. And that's where the Tehuantepec Isthmus Interoceanic Corridor comes in," Puertas said.
Mexico's corridor offers a multimodal alternative
Mexico's Tehuantepec Isthmus Interoceanic Corridor project seeks to connect the Pacific and Atlantic oceans through the country’s narrowest region. Unlike the Panama Canal's transit-only model, the Mexican corridor aims to be a multimodal logistics platform that connects the ports of Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos through a modernized railway system while incorporating industrial development poles along the route.
"We're no longer just talking about moving cargo from point A to point B, but transforming that cargo along the way," Puertas said. "This model is completely aligned with what we were talking about at the beginning, the logic of nearshoring. And it also adds value that the Panama Canal doesn't have today."
This content may be AI-assisted and is composed, reviewed, edited and approved by a human at S&P Global.
