Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) and Americold Realty Trust plan to formally explore co-development opportunities in Mexico as part of their continued strategic collaboration focused on optimizing temperature-sensitive commodity flows between the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
Americold and CPKC established a partnership in June 2023 to optimize temperature-controlled logistics across North America. CPKC connects North American markets with single-line, expedited intermodal freight transportation and a fleet of TempPro temperature-protected intermodal containers for door-to-door transit that is competitive with over the road trucks, the companies reported.
Americold’s cold chain ecosystem plays an integral role in the food supply chain, helping to connect production, distribution, and consumption for many of the largest food companies in the world.
“Our strategic partnership with CPKC creates a platform that will deliver significant and sustainable supply chain value for existing and new customers in North America,” Americold CEO George Chappelle said in a news release. “Exploring opportunities in Mexico is a natural continuation of this collaboration as we look at ways we can attack inefficiencies in the current cold chain.”
In February, Americold announced plans for its first development with CPKC at their intermodal facility in Kansas City, Missouri, and broke ground on the 335,000-sq.-ft., $127 million import-export hub in June. The new facility is expected to open mid-2025 and will support both importers and exporters of temperature sensitive food between Mexico and the United States.
“We are excited to build on our successful strategic collaboration with Americold with new facilities in Mexico as we leverage the unrivalled reach of our North American network to support the cold storage supply chain,” said Keith Creel, CPKC president and CEO. “That network, combined with our premium intermodal services moving one of the largest fleets of refrigerated containers in the industry, and this growing collaboration with Americold, continues to create new transportation options for our customers shipping a range of food and other products across North America.”
Last year, CPKC announced the addition of 1,000 new 53-ft. refrigerated intermodal containers to its network, more than doubling CPKC’s existing fleet and bringing more shipping options to customers using the expanding Mexico Midwest Express (MMX) premium intermodal service. MMX is North America’s first single-line rail service offering for refrigerated shippers from the Midwest to Mexico, a market currently served by trucks, CPKC said.
Americold plans to invest between $500 million and $1 billion over the next five to 10 years in development projects with CPKC and its other strategic partner, DP World.
