In Puerto Rico, an Auto Distributor Quietly Expands Its Free-Trade Footprint

FTZ News: The Federal Register notice was brief, technical, and easy to miss. On Thursday the Foreign-Trade Zones Board published an application to expand Subzone 7Q, the site operated by Motorambar Inc. in Cataño, Puerto Rico. The company is the exclusive distributor of Nissan, Infiniti and Kia vehicles for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is enlarging the parts and accessories distribution center that sits inside the subzone, a move that coincides with its 60th year on the island.

Motorambar’s current parts warehouse covers roughly 5,000 square meters and can hold up to 90,000 different part numbers. The expansion, described as an annex to the existing facility, is scheduled to open in the spring of 2026. Company executives have said the project will improve logistics, speed response times to its network of more than 30 independent dealerships across Puerto Rico and two more in the Virgin Islands, and strengthen overall service capacity. Investment figures have not been disclosed.

The subzone itself was approved in 2019 on 8.17 acres within Foreign-Trade Zone 7, which is administered by the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company. Zone 7 carries a 2,000-acre activation limit and remains one of the more active FTZ projects in the Caribbean. Puerto Rico’s three foreign-trade zones together have historically moved between $10 billion and $25 billion in merchandise received in recent reporting years and $5 billion to $10 billion in exports, supporting an estimated 15,000 to 16,000 jobs. Pharmaceuticals dominate the value of foreign-status goods entering the zones, followed by vehicles at around 18 percent.

For a company like Motorambar, FTZ status offers practical advantages: the ability to store imported parts and vehicles without immediate duty payments, streamline customs procedures, and handle transshipments more efficiently. The firm already operates large vehicle storage lots totaling 110,000 square meters with capacity for 6,000 cars and a pre-delivery inspection center that can prepare up to 240 vehicles a day. Its headquarters building carries 2,000 solar panels generating 285 kilowatts, and a recent sustainability report noted a 319 percent increase in solar installations and a 44 percent rise in clean-energy generation.

Puerto Rico’s broader economy provides the backdrop. Nonfarm employment on the island hovers near 955,000. Manufacturing accounts for about 80,000 jobs, while trade, transportation and utilities employ roughly 192,000. The auto distribution sector sits at the intersection of both. Motorambar, a subsidiary of the Dominican Grupo Ambar, began as the Datsun distributor in the 1960s, added Infiniti in the 1990s and Kia in 2000. Its decision to expand the parts center now, rather than scale back, reflects a bet that demand for service parts will remain steady even as the broader U.S. trade environment grows more complex under shifting tariff rules.

The expansion is modest by the standards of mainland manufacturing plants, yet it illustrates how FTZ designations continue to function for distribution and logistics operations. In an era when inverted-tariff benefits have been curtailed for some production activities, the ability to defer duties on parts inventories and move goods more fluidly still matters for companies that serve island markets with high import dependence. Cataño’s location near San Juan’s port and airport adds logistical weight.

Whether the enlarged warehouse will translate into measurable gains in employment or inventory turnover remains to be seen; the company has not released those projections. What the Federal Register filing does show is a quiet, concrete step by a long-established distributor to double down on infrastructure inside a federal free-trade zone. In Puerto Rico’s constrained economic landscape, such incremental investments are the ones that tend to stick./.