Abstract

CEDILLO-CAMPOS, Miguel Gastón et al. Automotive Freight Flows and Its Impact on Railway Infrastructure in Mexico: A Supply Chain Fluidity Approach. Ing. invest. y tecnol. [online]. 2017, vol.18, n.1, pp.87-99. ISSN 2594-0732.

Railway infrastructure is a critical element for automotive companies’ supply chain effectiveness as well as for countries’ competitiveness where they are located. In Mexico, automotive sector is a strategic industrial sector of its economy. Even though, until now there is not robust evidence about how automotive freight flows stress railway infrastructure in Mexico as a result of its fierce global competition. In that sense, spatial modelling of freight flows is an essential part of the transportation planning process. Thus, the objective of this paper is to present a spatial analysis of automotive freight flows based on the fluidity supply chain approach. Evidence revealed that even if Mexico is currently a key member of the global automotive production system, automotive freight flows are extremely circumscribed to interactions between manufacturing facilities located inside the NAFTA (North American Trade Agreement) region. Consequently, they are driving the Mexican transportation planning process to reinforce NAFTA transport freight corridors. Hence, this planning process is leaving aside its critical role in supporting configuration of regional industrial clusters with more local value added. This case clearly represents the risky dilemma of emerging economies when looking for improving global supply chains performance and at the same time, integrating local value added.

Keywords : infrastructure; freight transport; automotive industry; industrial organization; supplies chain fluidity.

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