Mexico pitches land corridor as an alternative to Panama Canal disruptions

With Panama Canal fees and wait times soaring amid the Iran war and falling water levels, Mexico is offering shippers a new shortcut — a land corridor across the country’s narrowest point.

The Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, or CIIT, links the Gulf of Mexico port Coatzacoalcos with Salina Cruz on the Pacific. Mexico hoped the corridor would attract shippers looking for a quicker alternative to the Panama Canal. 

The tension over the Strait of Hormuz, combined with the El Niño weather phenomenon that is set to intensify low water levels, has choked the Panama Canal, with a supertanker recently paying a record US$4.6 million to skip the queue.

While transit through the Panama Canal takes around eight to 10 hours, backups at either entrance can add days more. Mexican officials say cargo can traverse their rail route in seven hours, with full port-to-port transfer possible within 24 hours.

The Mexican government projects that the railway could move 1.4 million containers annually by 2035 — only a fraction of the roughly 20 million that pass through Panama each year.

𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽 ↓