Located in Mexico, the Port of Lazaro Cardenas recently became the Pacific port with the biggest growth in shipping.

Courtesy Government of the State of Michoacan

The Port of Lazaro Cardenas offers optimal conditions for the attraction of investing projects. Because of its strategic location on the Pacific Shore, it is part of a market of 363 settlements and 90 industrial parks in the country. Lazaro Cardenas is a young, dynamic port, leader in the market of handling commercial cargo that has maintained an annual growth of 13.46 percent during the last decade.

It is Mexico’s main port with most ship movements for international loads, since it handles 22 percent of exporting and 23 percent of national cargo. It is also the main steel producer in the country and the first producer of fertilizers in Latin America. It counts with the larger facilities to warehouse grains in the Pacific and it is the most important zone for producing electricity in Mexico and the second larger facility to warehouse and distribute petroleum.

Along with the many commercial advantages of Lazaro Cardenas, one can single out the fact that it is the only port on the Pacific shore that connects with the northeast railroad operated by the company Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM). It offers direct access to the markets of North America, Asia, Europe, and Central and South America. It also has 3,000 hectares of land reserved to grow for industrial and commercial development. The Port of Lazaro Cardenas is the deepest port in Mexico, due to the fact that its access channel counts with a depth of 16.5 meters, which allows the arrival of ships of up to 150,000 tons. The port also has five navigation channels and disposability of 18 kilometers of waterfront to develop ports and facilities.

The Port of Lazaro Cardenas offers 13 attack positions, two terminals for multiple uses and six port terminals to warehouse containers, fertilizers, grains, liquids, carbon, metal and minerals. Because of these characteristics, it’s not surprising that located in this zone are important businesses offering the possibility of integration and diversification for business activities and sectors such as steel (related to machinery, galvanized, laminated in hot and cold, auto development, motors and equipment and construction), and energy (businesses related with petrochemical and bases for gasoline). Other local companies are manufacturers of turbines, make parts for the electric industry and work in industrial refrigeration for example. Fertilizer, food (businesses related with packing) and commercial businesses related to the construction and operation of new sea terminals for cargo in general, also compose the local company matrix.

Using its trajectory of growth, the port sees itself consolidating as an industrial and commercial complex of high quality on the Mexican Pacific, and hopes to become the main connection for the main ports in the United States and Canada, and as the main terminal for the cargo coming from the Asian Market.

The strategic plan for development promotes diversification of the industrial activities and the productive chain integration. Besides, it has an objective to become the main business center with the highest levels of added value.

Due to its unbeatable characteristics, location, connections, facilities and infrastructure, the Port of Lazaro Cardenas has all the elements to become the strategic bridge for shipments between the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico; and without doubt the best industry and commercial opportunity.

This port is not only important for the State of Michoacan, it is also a center for international development, which unfortunately in the past, has lacked adequate promotion. Michoacan’s Governor, Lazaro Cardenas Batel, considers this port as a strategic point for the state’s development, which since October 2002 is now arguably Mexico’s principal port receiving Asia-Pacific shipping traffic.