Border Intelligence · Live · Port Laredo
The Laredo Corridor
255,129 northbound trucks entered the United States at Port Laredo in September 2026, the busiest land port in the hemisphere. The bold line is the 12-month average; the faint one is each raw BTS month, which swings with the number of weekdays.
One production system, crossing twice
Laredo is a manufacturing corridor, not a commodity one. The same families of goods, vehicles, machinery, and electronics, dominate both directions because parts and finished products cross and re-cross the border inside one production system. That's why about 85% of the value moves by truck and why Port Laredo sits number one for U.S. trade with Mexico. It also means this corridor rises and falls with North American manufacturing, not any single commodity price.
Watch the import and export lines together: when they move in step the production system is healthy, and when they diverge a supply chain is repricing.
The Laredo bridges, right now
Standard-lane waits at every Laredo crossing, straight from CBP and refreshed about every ten minutes. Truck lanes keep posted cargo hours, so most read closed at night. Every U.S.–Mexico crossing →
Ten years of trucks
Port Laredo counted 177,065 northbound trucks in September 2016 and 255,129 in September 2026. The busiest single month on this line is April 2024, at 267,884. Scroll to walk the dips.
The crater
Against the same months a year earlier, trucks ran −22.8% in April 2020 and −31.8% in May. By September 2020 the count was back above its year-earlier level.
The inspection month
Texas DPS inspections held trucks at the bridges for about a week in April 2022. Year-over-year growth shows the dent: +9.5% in March, +3.7% in April, and +19.6% in May once the lines cleared.
Tariffs, and the trucks kept coming
The 2025 tariff wave began in February 2025, a month of 232,374 trucks, −7.5% from a year earlier. The latest count, September 2026, is 255,129, +4.9% year over year.
Every month at a glance
Each cell compares one month's truck crossings at Port Laredo with the same month a year earlier. Blue is more trucks, red is fewer, and the deeper the color, the bigger the move. The crater of 2020 and the rebound of 2021 read across whole rows.
Same goods, both directions
Laredo is a manufacturing supply-chain corridor, not a commodity corridor. The same families of goods, machinery, vehicles, and electronics, lead both directions: components and finished goods crossing and re-crossing the border inside one production system.
Number one, two ways
By trucks, Laredo leads every U.S.–Mexico port. By total trade value, it ranks #2 among every U.S. port of entry, air and sea included, and #1 for trade with Mexico.
85% of corridor trade moves by truck
Rail carries most of the rest. Where the goods come from is its own story: Mexico dominates, but country of origin, not just port of entry, is where tariff exposure lives.
Over 740,000 people. One supply chain.
Laredo, Texas
Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas
Bridge activity · trailing 12 months
One gateway, four readings
A joint U.S.–Mexico customs processing model to eliminate redundant inspections, co-authored with Ambassador Gerónimo Gutiérrez Fernández.
Policy frameworkNorth American Industrial Coordination Council →Trilateral coordination for supply-chain resilience and industrial competitiveness across the USMCA bloc.
Live figures are pulled directly from the source APIs at view time; current figures reflect the latest official release on each agency's schedule.
Covarrubias, D. (2026). The Corridor: Laredo–Nuevo Laredo Trade Intelligence. https://labs.drdanielcovarrubias.com/corridor.
Full sources & methodology
Public U.S. & Mexican government data unless noted- Truck, rail, vehicle, and pedestrian crossings: U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Border Crossing/Entry Data (monthly, ~2-month lag).
- Live bridge waits: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Border Wait Times (updated every ~10 minutes).
- Trade value: U.S. Census Bureau international trade data and Texas Center for Border Economic and Enterprise Development analysis. Port Laredo 2025 = $353.94B; broader Laredo Customs District = $481.8B.
- Peso / USD: Banco de México FIX rate (the official USD/MXN reference, SIE series SF63528), with the European Central Bank reference rate as fallback.
- Industrial market and investment: City of Laredo Building Development Services and TCBEED, “Building on Trade” (Covarrubias, 2026).
- Nuevo Laredo data: INEGI, ICCE Nuevo Laredo Prontuario Socioeconómico 2025, IMSS employment statistics.
- Employment exposure: TAMIU TCBEED trilateral employment vulnerability analysis (Covarrubias & Lozano, 2025).