In early 2025, Hyundai Glovis – logistics and shipping
subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Group – conducted a pilot shipment, moving 900
vehicles using the CIIT rail line. Its ‘Glovis Cosmos’ ship travelled across
the Pacific Ocean from South Korea to Port of Salina Cruz in Oaxaca, Mexico –
via the Port of Lázaro Cárdenas.
From there, all 900 vehicles were unloaded and were
transported using Isthmus of Tehuantepec Railway to the Port of Coatzacoalcos,
Veracruz, on Mexico’s east coast. They were transported in two batches – one
with 600 vehicles and a second with 300 – using 50 Bi-Max freight cars along
the railway's Line Z.
Once in Veracruz, the vehicles were loaded onto the ‘RCC
África’ vessel, which then set off for the Brunswick, Georgia, on the east
coast of the US. Each shipment reportedly took around nine hours to cross Mexico
via rail, with the entire Mexico segment of the journey taking a total of six
days.
Glovis America’s Sergio Gutierrez told the audience at ALSC Mexico
2025 that this pilot was conducted with the intention of validating the feasibility
of using the CIIT, rather than the Panama Canal, to move vehicles between the
Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean.
“We would like to think not about what is going to happen tomorrow with our
tomorrow's P&L – I'm talking about what is going to happen with the future
of Mexico and the entire industry in the next 30-50, if not more, years,”
Gutierrez said.
“It’s just like when the Panama Canal was created – many
generations were not able to see the benefit, and nowadays we all use it,” he
added. “So this interoceanic corridor will be a generational game changer for
Glovis.”
