John D. Boyd | Jul 17, 2009 12:25PM EDT
Kansas City Southern and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics will open a vehicle distribution center for automaker Nissan near Houston, using the new rail segment KCS opened there this month.
The auto center will be next to an 800-acre CenterPoint Intermodal Center that company is opening with KCS. It will allow Wallenius to distribute to Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma Nissan cars that are built in Aguascalientes, Mexico, or brought in through the west coast Port of Lazaro Cardenas.
The site is 35 miles southwest of Houston, on KCS track opened this month to cut out a slower route over Union Pacific Railroad that juts nearly 70 miles westward and costs KCS trackage fees. Building its own track segment between the Texas towns of Victoria and Rosenberg also allows KCS to develop facilities to woo shippers for intermodal, auto and other business.
The WWL distribution center reportedly will revamp an existing building and be ready by Sept. 1 with initial space to handle 650 vehicles and plans to expand in coming years.
This is the first of what KCS officials say should be a series of new customer agreements linked to its Rosenberg track opening.
Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.
