Once a prime beneficiary of the nearshoring wave, DSV is now tempering its U.S.-Mexico investment plans amid renewed tariff pressures and shifting trade signals. The company’s pause reflects broader cooling in cross-border logistics following recent policy moves from Washington.
Tariff Volatility Disrupts Border Buildout
Logistics heavyweight DSV has hit the brakes on new investments along the U.S.-Mexico corridor, citing reduced growth in cross-border freight volumes driven by policy uncertainty. CEO Jens H. Lund said the firm has suspended a planned trucking expansion and is holding off on other capital commitments while it awaits further clarity on U.S. trade actions.
“The growth has gone out of it,” Lund told analysts, pointing to tariffs as a primary disruptor. The pause comes despite DSV’s April acquisition of DB Schenker, which vaulted the Denmark-based firm to the No. 2 position globally in logistics revenue, behind Amazon.
The company reported second-quarter operating profit of 4.725 billion Danish krone (approximately $722 million), up 15% year-over-year, aided by the Schenker acquisition. DSV reaffirmed its full-year earnings guidance of $3 billion to $3.3 billion, but executives acknowledged headwinds across several global trade lanes, including the U.S.-Mexico axis.
Trump administration officials last week extended 30% tariffs on select Mexican goods, including automobiles and steel, for 90 days while broader trade negotiations continue. Though framed as a temporary measure, the move has added friction to cross-border operations and injected further hesitation into capital deployment strategies.
From Nearshoring Boom to Border Bottlenecks
Just two years ago, DSV had doubled its border warehousing footprint. In 2024, it tripled the size of its Brownsville, Texas facility near the Gateway International Bridge, positioning itself to support booming U.S.-Mexico cargo handoffs. The company was not alone, firms across logistics and manufacturing sectors rushed to expand in border zones amid nearshoring tailwinds and USMCA incentives.
Mexico briefly overtook China as the U.S.’s largest trading partner last year, with nearly $840 billion in bilateral goods exchanged. But that surge is now showing signs of strain. With Washington’s recent pivot back to country-specific tariffs and talk of reshoring auto production from Mexico to the U.S., some manufacturers and logistics operators are reassessing their exposure.
The broader slowdown isn’t limited to DSV. According to recent industry reports, containerized trade between the two countries has cooled compared to last year’s record volumes, particularly in automotive and electronics segments most vulnerable to tariff risk. Meanwhile, infrastructure investments in key border towns like Laredo and El Paso have entered a “watch and wait” phase, as operators reevaluate the pace and timing of expansion projects.
Next Moves May Favor Flexibility Over Footprint
DSV’s pullback signals more than short-term caution, it may mark a strategic shift in how logistics players approach cross-border growth in a less predictable trade environment. As U.S. trade policy enters a more transactional, country-by-country phase, agility may prove more valuable than scale.
Companies investing along the U.S.-Mexico border will likely need to hedge bets across multiple corridors, maintaining optionality via flexible warehousing agreements, diversified carrier partnerships, and digital visibility tools that can adjust routing based on policy shocks. In the near term, those with deeper geopolitical forecasting capabilities may gain an edge, as logistics increasingly intersects with the policy playbook.