Bulletin 442 - Friday, October 16, 2009

Mexico City,- After a US$10 million investment, Hino Motors Sales Mexico assembly plant is officially inaugurated today. Located in Silao Municipality in Guanajuato, the plant is located on 10 hectares in Guanajuato Inland Port, a logistics park strategically located in central Mexico, which will cut the company's logistics costs by 30%, by improving transfer processes for manufacturing supplies, as well as trucks distribution to the nine dealers currently selling the trucks in Mexico and the five agencies they will soon open. Hino Motors Sales Mexico, a Japanese capital company and Toyota subsidiary, will assemble Series 500 trucks, known as Ranger in Japan. Series 300 and 400 will be imported, taking advantage of preferential tariffs granted under Mexico-Japan Trade Agreement.

Source: T21

Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua,- Lear Corporation, the auto parts manufacturer, which is second industrial employer in Ciudad Juarez, is relocating a plant here from Saltillo, Coahuila, generating 500 jobs. According to sources close to the company, Lear is seeing more and more recovery signs in this border city and decided to bring this operation. The purpose, the source said, is taking advantage of Juarez location and qualified labor, in order to have more efficient operations for a lower cost, all of this as part of their restructure process. 100 jobs from the TV sets manufacturer Manufacturas Avanzadas (MASA) and 30 from Elcoteq, which produces Phillips TVs here, add to the 500 jobs generated by Lear. In addition, other companies such as Arneses de Juarez are now hiring, the same source informed.

Source: El Diario

Mexico City.- Mexico is leader as destination of investment to manufacture airspace components all over the world, above the United States, China, Russia and India. According to the study "Aerospace Globalization: The Next Stage", made by the consulting firm AeroStrategy, Mexico ranks first with close to US$33 billion between 1990 and 2009. "Which country has accrued the largest number of manufacturing investments? Mexico, a country which not long ago could not be found in the aerospace map", the document says. Highly specialized labor, low costs and being close to the most important markets in the world are Mexico's attributes for this type of investment. The report points-out that Mexico has been careful to protect intellectual property rights, as well as reducing tariffs for aeronautic components. "As a result, dozens of original equipment manufacturers have invested in Mexico in recent years, and Mexico has now a total number of jobs in the sector over 20 thousand, with exports for more than US$3 billion, a figure which will keep on growing at a significant pace in years to come", AeroStrategy says. Mexico offers manufacturing, maintenance and repair services for aerospace industry; in addition to engineering, design and college degrees.

Source: Reforma

Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua.- Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) invested US$25 million to start operations in three new plants located in Samalayuca Complex; the strongest investment after the crisis which affected all productive sectors, including construction. Aggregates Plant will process stones and sand used to make concrete. The new plant will start operating in the next few weeks to meet high demand in Ciudad Juarez. Upon starting operations five jobs will be generated. Another new plant manufactures concrete panels; it started operating two months ago and generated 30 jobs. The third plant is dry mixes which is where products with different formulations are packed, depending on what will be built. This plant's kick-off, also two months ago, generated five jobs.

Source: El Diario

Mexico City,- Juan Carlos Marroquin Cuesta, CEO, Nestlé México, said that in spite of the economic recession and the possibility of a new tax charged on goods and services by the Mexican Government, his company has not cut down investments in Mexico. Mr. Marroquin would not disclose figures of investments in Mexico during the first Shared Values Forum, organized by the United Nations and Nestlé Group. However, the Company's report shows that in the first half of the year, sales went down from US$50.620 billion to US$46.233 billion, i.e. an 8.66% drop. Regarding the 2% tax proposed by the Federal Government, Marroquin assured the economic crisis is no reason to stop growing.

Source: El Informador

Dallas,- Bestop, manufacturer of soft tops for SUVs, informed today they will close their manufacturing plant in Broomfield, a suburb of Denver, Colorado, to transfer their production to Mexico. Bestop, a subsidiary of the Austria-based magna International, said about 140 workers from their Broomfield Plant will lose their jobs in the first months of 2010. The decision was driven by "difficult economic conditions facing the North American auto industry due to reduced domestic production and customer demands," said Tracy Fuerst, Magna International's spokeswoman. The transition is under way and should be complete by the end of next April, Fuerst said. Ms. Fuerst would not say if they have already chosen the site of the new Bestop Plant.

Source: El Financiero

Puebla, Puebla,-Volkswagen Group informed they stay as leader in sales of passenger automobiles, with a 21.2% share of the domestic market upon closing the third quarter of the year. They said the four brands the German company sells in Mexico -Audi, Bentley, Seat and Volkswagen- sold 85,738 passenger cars from January to September 2009, ranking first among automotive groups in Mexico. Volkswagen further said three of their models are among the 10 best sold cars in Mexico: Jetta, Gol and Bora. Bentley, Volkswagen's high end brand, sold seven units in Mexico upon closing the third quarter of the year. Volkswagen de Mexico informed that upon closing September accrued production reached 221,236 units, which shows inventories are adjusting to international demand shrinking.

Source: CNN Expansion