The Mayan Train is expected to mobilize all fuel in the southeast at the beginning of 2023, a market with a value of up to 13 thousand million pesos per year.
The financial viability of the Mayan Train, the flagship infrastructure project of the current Government, is focused on freight transport in southeastern Mexico, but will only move 0.6 percent of the cargo that is transported nationwide each year.
“82 percent of the tons transported by Mexico are in two companies: Ferromex and Kansas City Southern of Mexico, which are basically the Pacific lines.
“The cargo line that the Mayan Train wants to build represents 0.6 percent of the goods that move in Mexico,” said Ana Thaís, a researcher at the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness (IMCO).
This contrasts with the railroad’s financial plan in the southeast of 1,470 kilometers, which it hopes to find in the freight transfer the funds necessary to pay for the project in which 144 thousand 500 million pesos will be invested.
In recent days, the head of the National Tourism Development Fund ( Fonatur), Rogelio Jiménez Pons, explained that the economic profitability of the railway will come from the movement of freight and energy freight, one of the main bets of the Government to capitalize on the project Infrastructure
Therefore, the Mayan Train is expected to mobilize all fuel in the southeast region of the Mexican Republic at the beginning of 2023, a market with a value of up to 13 billion pesos annually.
The movement of goods by rail is 30 percent cheaper than land transport, in addition to being 100 times less polluting than road transport.
The problem with this is that, according to the official plan, the transfer of merchandise from the Mayan Train will be used to pay the 144 billion pesos that the project will cost.
Foreign funds and banks seek to finance the Mayan Train
The most important infrastructure project of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador has aroused the interest of six foreign funds and banks, who are already negotiating with the Federal Government the financing of the project, which amounts to between 120 thousand and 150 billion pesos.
Among those interested in investing are two US investment funds, two Mexican-Spanish companies, a Canadian firm, and some European banks, according to Rogelio Jiménez Pons, head of Fonatur.
“We are talking about the heavyweights coming, the major leagues of financial organizations, world banks, development banks like CAF, we have negotiations with these institutions.”
30-year concessions
The interest of the investment funds and foreign banks for the Tren Maya project is due to the fact that the Mexican government will grant concessions for 30 years and will pay, in addition to the capital, a 10 percent subsidy, as well as interest and maintenance costs of the train for the next five-six years.
According to Jiménez Pons, the goal set by Fonatur for this year is that four of the seven tranches of the project are placed at the end of December, so investors will ‘disburse’ around 4,400 million dollars in the first stage of the railway project
Palenque, Escárcega and even the border with Yucatán, as well as Chichen Itzá will be the open sections for international competition during 2019.
The remaining three routes will be tendered, in the same way, for the following year, so the stage of competitions for rolling stock – which includes roads and railways – will be complete.
Source: negocios-inteligentes, el financiero, fonatur
The Mazatlan Post
