Shutdowns at Texas-Mexico rail crossings rattle chems

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Some players in the chemical industry are worried about the disruptions of shipments caused by the closures at two railroad crossings between Texas and Mexico.

The railroad company Union Pacific (UP) said that US Customs and Border Protection had closed the El Paso and Eagle Pass border crossings on Monday because of the migrant crisis.

Each day the border crossings are closed, UP has to embargo customers’ goods on more than 60 trains, or nearly 4,500 rail cars. An equivalent of goods is being held in Mexico, the company said.

The crossings represent 45% of cross-border shipments on UP, the railroad company said. It estimates that the economic impact of the border closure is more than $200m/day.

UP said its other gateways cannot handle the extra traffic caused by the shutdowns.

The railroad company BNSF said it is not accepting any new shipments as a result of the closures. Trains already en route will be staged until the gateways reopen and it is safe to resume cross-border operations.

A source in Mexico said the outlook is very complicated on the logistics front with little information about what is happening. It is too early to tell if the closing will affect the market in Mexico.

In the US, a distributor of polypropylene (PP) expressed concerns about the effects of the closings.

A toluene buyer was watching the market.

In 2022, Mexico was the largest export market for the US for plastics and organic chemicals traded in kilograms; organic chemicals traded in liters; and inorganic chemicals traded in metric tonnes, according to the US International Trade Commission (ITC).

During that same year, Mexico was the largest export market for the US for polyethylene (PE), according to the ITC.

Thumbnail shows a railroad. Image by Shutterstock.