Bulletin 384 - Friday, August 29, 2008

Monterrey, Mexico- Arvin Meritor started yesterday in Cienega de Flores a new plant to manufacture components, such as conic gears and front shafts for trucks, where US$30 million were invested; the Plant was opened to meet growing demand and substitute part of the production in North Carolina plant. The plant, which will be able to deliver 600 shafts and 800 pairs of conic gears per day, becomes the Group's most modern and cost-efficient plant, one of the American officers present at the ceremony said. Arvin Meritor's new plant currently employs 150 people, but they expect to require around 500 employees by the end of 2009, Mr. Reihardt informed. He further said that US$30 million and 9 months were required to build this plant, and they now have plans to invest a similar amount in a new plant.

Source: Reforma

Due to the drop in trucks and SUV's sales in North America, Delphi, the automotive supplier. will close their plant in Cuahtemoc, Chihuahua, which will affect one thousand 527 workers, the Corporation informed. Xochitl Diaz Porras, Corporate Affairs Manager for Delphi in Mexico, explained that the Company made the decision to forecast a permanent decrease in production by their customers. "We are very sad to announce Delphi's plans to close our plant Alambrados y Circuitos Eléctricos IV in Cuauhtemoc, Chihuahua", she said. Ms. Diaz Porras said that dismissed employees will be offered the opportunity to transfer to other Delphi plants in Mexico, where there are vacant positions. For example, some workers will be transferred to RBE plants in Ciudad Juarez, Meoqui, Chihuahua, Mochis and Casas Grandes, where the situation is stable. In Delphi's name, she thanked the workers, the Union (CTM), the community, the municipal government and the State government for being important stakeholders in the life and growth of Alambrados y Circuitos Eléctricos plant in Cuauhtémoc.

Source: El Diario

Reynosa, Tamaulipas- Nokia will invest US$60 million in its plant located in Tamaulipas between. 2008 and 2009, to install equipment to manufacture their mobile communication devices. Jeff Marquis, General Manager for Nokia Reynosa, said that only two other plants - in the 10-plant network this manufacturer has all over the world - have this state-of-the-art technology (China and India). They are machines with a high design that make them work faster and have increasingly smaller components, as El Universal could see during a visit to the facilities that produce cell phones mainly for markets in Mexico, North and South America. Operations in this plant have made of Nokia the number one exporter in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, and number five at a national level, according to data from the Ministry of the Economy.

Source: El Diario de Ciudad Juarez

Strattec de Mexico, a corporation in the automotive sector which operates in Ciudad Juarez since. 1988, started the construction of their second industrial plant with a US$7 million investment. The Plant will be located in 7939 Julio Hernández Street in Los Aztecas Industrial Park. Ramón Romo López, the Company's Administrative Manager, said that construction of this new plant started last month and it is expected to be finished by next January; works are being made by the local construction company Hermes. He explained that Strarttec de Mexico has two plants, where automobile locks are manufactured. They own one plant and lease the other in Juarez/Gema/Fernandez Industrial Park; the 330 employees currently working in this plant will be relocated to the new plant, but 120 workers more will be hired for a total number of 450. He acknowledged that Strattec's expansion needs were the main reason to invest in the second industrial building, because the leased space, which has 60 thousand square feet, was insufficient to meet the Company's production goals.

Source: El Diario

Personnel from Cummins Corporation started equipping their third plant in this City, after the. construction company reported a 99% advance of works started six months ago. Ricardo Alonso Franco, Manager of Hermes Construction Company said that the deadline to finish Cummins plant project was set for August 2008, which has been observed because current works are only to go over minor details. He further said that to meet the deadline it was necessary to work intensely and employ 300 people, including masons, painters, technicians and engineers, among others. Per information provided last February during the ceremony to set the Plant's cornerstone, the two-floor building required a US$9 million investment, as well as US$20 million in machinery and US$3 million per year in equipment. When this industrial building is operating, it will provide for the generation of 300 new technical jobs, devoted to the assembly and manufacture of combustion systems for diesel engines, which will add to the existing 835 jobs in the two assembly plants the Company has here.

Source: El Diario

Mexico City ,- While GE Appliances is undergoing a selling process, its Mexican partner Mabe will invest US$110 million to expand production capacity of its factory in Celaya, Guanajuanto and its design center in Queretaro. This strategy will generate one thousand new jobs, sources close to the process informed. With this, the Mexican company will increase by 14% total refrigerators exports to the 74 countries where they operate. In Celaya, production capacity will be expanded 44%, from 900 thousand units per year to one million 300 thousand, to become one of the largest refrigerators manufacturers in the world. With the investment, Celaya Plant passes from a traditional manufacturing system, to one that cuts down cycle times by using "just-in-time" method which avoids inventories.

Source: El Norte