On September 14 and 15, 2026, a power failure affecting Mexico's tax authority (SAT) servers made it impossible to issue the DODA — the document every vehicle needs to cross the border in either direction — and halted customs clearance for most of two days. Service is back, but this was the fifth outage of its kind since 2025, and that is the part worth planning around.
What happened, with timestamps
SAT and the customs agency (ANAM) published an official timeline, which is the most solid source among everything that circulated:
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Monday, September 14, morning | Power failure hits the servers; DODA issuance stops |
| Monday, September 14, ~2:00 p.m. | Connection restored |
| Tuesday, September 15, 9:00 a.m. | Intermittent failures return |
| Tuesday, September 15, 11:00 a.m. | Service definitively restored |
The DODA (Documento de Operación para Despacho Aduanero) accompanies every unit entering or leaving a Mexican customs point. Without it there is no crossing — it isn't paperwork you can file ahead or settle later. That's how a few hours becomes a queue measured in kilometers.
Sources: IDC Online and MVS Noticias, both reporting on the official statement.
The number that circulated, and what the source actually said
Several headlines reported "losses of up to 7 billion dollars." The direct quote says something different.
Javier Cendejas, president of the Mexican Foreign Trade Council (COMCE) Northeast, told El Imparcial that a nationwide interruption of that size "can defer between 5 billion and 7.5 billion dollars in trade flow."
Deferring is not losing. That's trade pushed back, not value destroyed. What does get lost is what Cendejas listed separately: the extraordinary costs in transport, warehousing, inventory and production that the delay creates. That's the real bill, and nobody has quantified it yet.
We're drawing the distinction because it changes the conclusion. If 7 billion dollars had evaporated, the lesson would be about country risk. Since it's deferred flow plus extra costs, the lesson is about who absorbs the delay — and that part you can act on.
Other verifiable figures from the same report:
- Roughly 59,000 foreign trade operations per day move through Mexican customs.
- Between 5,000 and 7,000 vehicles cross daily at Nuevo Laredo's Bridge III.
- When the system fails, queues reach up to 40 kilometers.
Why this isn't an isolated accident
T21 reported the detail that turns a news item into a trend: this was the fifth similar failure since 2025. The volume context explains why it hurts:
- Mexico–U.S. bilateral trade totaled 588.523 billion dollars between January and July 2026.
- Of that, 75.6% moves by truck (445.186 billion dollars over the same period).
Three quarters of the country's foreign trade depends on trucks, and every truck depends on a document that depends on a server. Carriers reported dropping from about 2.5 daily trips to 1.5 during the disruption.
What it means for a brand importing inventory
If you bring product in — from China, from the United States, from anywhere — this affects you even if you never export. The DODA applies in both directions, so your container sat still too.
The uncomfortable part is that none of the usual steps to "secure" an import protect you here. Your pedimento can be in order, you can be current in the importer registry, and you can work with a good customs broker: if the system won't issue the document, nobody crosses.
What you do control is how much the delay costs you:
- Stop planning around an exact arrival date. A campaign, launch or promotion tied to a container's ETA is a bet that nothing breaks in a chain you don't own.
- Hold buffer inventory inside the country. This is the full argument for keeping already-nationalized product in a warehouse in Mexico: when the border jams, you keep shipping from what's already inside.
- Separate "in transit" from "available" inventory. Plenty of brands count goods still on the road as sellable. When the road stops for two days, they sell what they can't ship.
- Ask for visibility, not promises. An operator who tells you at 10 a.m. Monday that DODAs aren't being issued lets you react. One who tells you afterward does not.
Frequently asked questions
What is the DODA? The Documento de Operación para Despacho Aduanero is the record every vehicle must present when entering or leaving Mexican customs. It's generated in the SAT system, and without it the crossing isn't authorized.
Did the outage affect imports or only exports? Both. The DODA is mandatory for every unit crossing in either direction, so inbound and outbound cargo were equally stuck.
Is it resolved? Yes. SAT and ANAM reported service definitively restored on September 15 at 11:00 a.m.
Can I prevent this from happening again? You can't prevent the outage. You can reduce its impact: buffer inventory inside the country, planning that doesn't hinge on exact arrival dates, and an operator who gives you real-time visibility.
The lesson of the last two years is simple: customs is a single point of failure and that isn't changing. The defense isn't better paperwork — it's having product on this side of the border when the other side stops. Ecommex receives, nationalizes and stores imported inventory so your operation doesn't depend on a server staying on — see our import and customs clearance service in Mexico.