Gomez: $10 billion being invested at the Port of Brownsville. And that’s outside of LNG.

3 months ago 98

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – The Port of Brownsville could secure an additional $10 billion worth of investment and that’s aside from the two big liquefied natural gas export terminal projects, its deputy port director has announced.

With the two LNG projects, being developed by Rio Grande LNG and Texas LNG, the investment would be $32.4 billion. If all the projects come to pass it would catapult the port from 50th in the nation into the top 20.

“I’ve ran the the numbers and at some point, we’re looking at – not including the two LNGs, which are already a done deal – but we are looking at additional $10 billion (worth) of investments at the port,” said deputy port director Arturo Gomez.

“We’re not sure if all of them will make it the all the way through to fruition. But we’re trying our best to make sure that we continue to see economic growth in the region.”

Gomez made his comments in a wide-ranging Rio Grande Guardian podcast interview. In the interview, he pointed out that the port has climbed from 55th to 50th in a ranking of the top 150 maritime ports in the nation.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Gomez. “In our presentations we always use the past five years and from 2019 to the present we went from 11.3 million tons of cargo to 17.8 million tons of cargo (in 2023).”

Given that a couple of those were Covid years, the tonnage totals are even more impressive, Gomez said. “We had record breaking numbers throughout those years. So, we’ve got a lot of activity (going on.”

And then there is LNG.

“Right now, we’ve broken into the top 50 ports, but once those LNG companies go into full production… what we’re seeing now is 17.8 million tons of cargo. We’ll be adding another 30 million tons of (LNG) cargo. And so, it’ll take us from being the top 50 hopefully to being in the top 20.”

The Guardian also asked Gomez about the port’s foreign trade zone, which is numbered 62 by the federal government. He said the port’s FTZ is ranked No. 2 in the nation for exports.

“This is really important for us and really provides the stakeholders and users of our facilities at the port… it allows them to import and export without having to pay any tariffs or duties on those commodities. As long as these commodities are in transit there won’t be any customs implications. So, we’ve found that this is a big attraction. It has brought a great deal of investment to the port.”

Gomez gave an example of a commodity that is handled within the FTZ.

“We have 5.5 million tons of cargo just in terms of steel slab that comes from Brazil to the Port of Brownsville and then is loaded onto rail cars. It comes to the port by vessel and is loaded onto rail cars for export to Mexico,” Gomez said.

“We have two unit trains a day leave the port to go to the Pesquería area of Nuevo León. It (the steel slab) is just in transit. There is no manufacturing or any significant change to the commodity… and (so) the companies in Mexico don’t have to deal with the U.S. Customs and duties that we have here. So, it’s a huge attraction.”

Business Park

Gomez also spoke about the impact of nearshoring.

“It (nearshoring) has really been significant. So much so that we are developing our own industrial park or business park. We expect to see completion of the business park probably within the next few months.”

Gomez said there are 18 lots within the 118-acre business park. He said one lot has already been leased to a Turkish company that plans to build a floor mill.

“We want to take advantage of these nearshoring and reshoring opportunities,” he said.

Gomez said there are plans to expand the business park.

“We do have plans for a phase two. Like I said, we have 118 acres, but we have 44 acres in reserve, adjacent to these 118 acres. In fact, we have a potential investor already for that phase two expansion so that facility, we can see that going (up) pretty soon.”

As for companies investing at the Port of Brownsville, Gomez mentioned Ternium Pesquería, Forza Steel, Element Fuels Holdings, and Seatrium, which was previously known as Keppel AmFELS. Element Fuels Holdings is brand new. Gomez said it could be a $4 billion project.

Gomez also spoke about a project to deepen the depth of the Brownsville Ship Channel, from 42 feet to 52 feet. And he spoke about Texas A&M University building a $30 million training center at the port

LNG

But the project that captures all the headlines is LNG. Gomez gave an update on the Rio Grande LNG project, which has already started.

“With regard to NextDecade/Rio Grande, I think they made their final investment decision last year around mid-July. The next day, they were already there with equipment. The following day, they had made close to… I don’t remember the exact number anymore. I don’t know how many billion dollars in purchase orders. It is really impressive,” Gomez said.

“Amazingly, they’re ahead of schedule in their construction. Already there is close to 1,000 construction employees on site. That number will be close to 5,000 employees by the end of next year, around this time next year.”

Gomez said Rio Grande LNG made a commitment to have 30% of its workers employees come from a a 100-mile radius of the plant.

“The number now is close to 70% local employees. So, all the paychecks are staying within the Rio Grande Valley. For us, that’s amazing news. It’s just transformational with what we’re seeing out there. That’s a drive that I like to take at least once a week just to see. It’s impressive. An $18.4 billion investment is not something we are used to in this region. So, it’s completely exciting.”

Gomez said Rio Grande LNG expects to handle 27 million tons of liquefied natural gas per year. Texas LNG will handle about four million tons per year.

“Combined, that is staggering. Thirty-one million tons of additional cargo to the port. And I think both companies are looking at potential for growth. I think we are going to see a lot of activities in the LNG sector.”

Editor’s Note: Here is the Rio Grande Guardian podcast with Arturo Gomez: