Bulletin 383 - Friday, August 22, 2008

México,- Hermosillo, Sonora represents an attraction pole for Israeli investment, especially in tourism real estate field; the Israeli Firm DTL Real Estate is launching a project in Costa Serena at San Carlos, Guaymas. That area is the most important tourism zone in the State of Sonora and will have around 3 thousand hotel rooms, per information from the Israeli Embassy in Mexico. The project is expected to attract investments and visitors from the USA, due to their proximity to this development, as well as the capacity of US visitors to freely circulate in said zone. Construction will consist in two 172-condos buildings and will start early in 2009.

Source: El Financiero

Ixtapa, Zihuatanejo,- Upon closing May, Daimler Vehiculos Comerciales de Mexico recorded. sales for almost US$60 million in spare parts, 25% more than in even term in 2007, said Jörg Nührmann, the Company's Post-sales Director, to 300 attendants to the Second Post-sales Convention of Daimler's subsidiary in Mexico. Daimler's dealers and suppliers met with the Plant's personnel to learn about the Company's purpose: achieving total customer satisfaction; one of the main goals is providing prompt high quality service to vehicles at the best cost. To achieve this purpose, spare parts availability plays a significant role. Therefore, Daimler Vehiculos Comerciales invested US$25 million in its International Spare Parts Center, which now has an inventory of more than 46 thousand spare parts, even though it has capacity to store more than 55 thousand pieces.

Source: T21

Mexico,- General Motors Plant in Silao laid off 600 workers this weekend and, at the same time. they will start today the fifth technical stoppage this year, paying workers half of their salaries during said three weeks. Mauricio Kuri Curiel, the Plant's spokesman, informed that both measures obey to a drop in the sales of vehicles, due to the increase in gas prices. The dismissal came as a surprise, at least to the public, because days before officers from GM and from the State Government had declared that there would not be personnel cut-down. Kuri Curiel said to the press that 200 workers filed for an early retirement and 400 were dismissed, due to a surplus in the assembler's production lines.

Source: El Financiero

Chihuahua, Chih,- TRW has attracted from Italy to Chihuahua an operation which will allow the full manufacture of steering wheels for automobiles, from casting of magnesium-aluminum structure, all the way to leather padding, production and installation of safety air bags and harnesses assembly, Miguel Angel Calderon informed. Mr. Calderon, Industry Director in the Ministry of Industrial Development said that this provided not only for staying in Chihuahua, but also increasing operations by 300% and taking the labor force from 800 to around one thousand employees. He further said that to attract this new operation a significant role was played by two proposals to improve production submitted by workers in steering wheels padding operation. Up to last year the steering wheel's core, its magnesium and aluminum structure was casted in Italy and brought to Chihuahua for padding, to later build-in safety air bags, but due to an exponential increase in productivity the Company decided to transfer Italy's operation and produce steering wheels here. He said that this not only preserves existing employment, but also attracts new operations, as was the case with TRW

Source: Segundo a Segundo

Puebla,- As a conclusion to the revision of the Collective Labor Agreement held at the Ministry of Labor in Mexico City, Volkswagen de Mexico and its Union reached an agreement on salaries and wages; which prevents the strike scheduled for tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. Workers will receive a direct 5.4% increase on their wages and benefits, as well as $1,227 Mexican Pesos per year in food coupons and one additional day in their Christmas Bonus. With this increase in wages, the Company, in addition to keeping its workers' purchasing power, is expecting to consolidate their commitment to face challenges in the 2nd half of this year, when they are planning to achieve record production in Puebla Plant, which is working at maximum capacity. Until July 2008, Volkswagen's plant in Mexico has produced 266 thousand vehicles, Bora, Golf Variant, Jetta and New Beetle models, a 22% year-to-year increase in production.

Source: Volkswagen

Chrysler and General Motors CEO's in Mexico are confident that the. expansion of the domestic market will help the global corporations leave behind the dry spell. General current perception about automotive companies is quite different from the vision of Chrysler's and General Motors' top executives in Mexico. Both Joseph Albert from Chrysler and Kevin Williams from General Motors, agree that Mexico is one of the most important markets for their respective corporations, according to the magazine "Lideres". However, their point of view does not precisely refer to production of plants here, it is rather in the sense that Mexico could be acting as a growing "blow-off valve" to sell the units assembled in the USA; which, in a local context would mean more competition for units manufactured in Coahuila and elsewhere in Mexico. Kevin Williams, GM-Mexico's General Director, informed that from January to May the Company had a 21% share of the Mexican market, in spite of broad competition and stays ahead in sales in the automotive industry. Williams thinks that Mexico is more than a work site, "it is a place to invest for the future". He says that one of his most important achievements has been the largest investment ever in the manufacturing area in Mexico.

Source: Vanguardia