Bulletin 464 - Friday, April 9, 2010

Mexico City,-Mining industry will invest US$13,93 billion in 2010-2012 term in Mexico, to end the current Administration with an accrued investment for US$21.753 billion. Manuel Luevanos Sanchez, Chairman of Mexican Mining Chamber (Camara Minera de Mexico - Camimex), said that this announcement "is proof of our sector's confidence in Mexico and the response to world demand". Upon closing Camimex's Annual Ordinary Meeting, Luevanos Sanchez reminded that upon closing 2009 Mining Industry had generated six thousand new jobs in 15 new mining operations. The labor force working for this industry therefore amounted to 269 thousand direct jobs and 1.5 million indirect jobs, even if investment in such term went back 22%, amounting to US$2.858 billion.

Source: Excelsior

The market of supplies for maquiladora industry is a treasure little exploited locally Fortunately, the market is growing, and the share of local supplies used by export maquiladora industry has grown. Data from the Mexican Statistics Agency, Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, Geografia e Informatica, state that supplies used by maquiladora industry in Ciudad Juarez amounted to MXP$14.271 billion. The amount spent by maquiladoras installed in Juarez last December on supplies equals 4.6 times the Municipality's budget for 2010. From the MXP$14.271 billion spent by IMMEX companies in supplies, Mexican companies contributed with MXP$711.5 million, which barely represents 4.98%; however, it is a share never reached in the last 5 years. The remaining MXP$13.559 billion spent in supplies were imported, which shows the size of the market companies from Ciudad Juarez have as a challenge.

Source: El Diario

Coahuila, Mexico,- While the crisis in the automotive industry meant a 20% negative impact in cargo handling for Kansas City Southern de Mexico, this outlook has completely changed and, after knowing the first quarter's results, this railroad has very encouraging perspectives for Coahuila Southeastern Region. "We are definitively speaking about a very complicated 2009, when cargo dropped 20%, but the first two months of 2010 were closed with very good numbers for the automotive sector, which rebound has been significant", Edgar Villaumin, Institutional Relations Director, KCSM, declared after heading several work meetings here. "It was here where the crisis struck first and this is where things are rebounding first as well; even if I do not have precise figures, I can say that numbers in the first quarter are good and that our customers' forecasts are very positive; we are very optimistic for the rest of the year", he said.

Source: Vanguardia

Chihuahua, Mexico,-The first quarter of 2010 posted a 2.1% year-to-year increase, the second highest increase in the decade. The Minister of Labor, Javier Lozano, announced that in the first quarter of this year 290 thousand new permanent and temporary jobs were created, which represents a 2.1% increase when compared to last year's figures. Lozano Alarcon said that this is the second highest increase in the whole decade for such term, only after 2006 when growth in employment was over 303 thousand jobs. "It compares positively against last year, the hardest time of the crisis, when 181 thousand jobs were lost", he said in a press conference.

Source: El Diario

Queretaro, Mexico,- Mabe, the Mexican home appliances manufacturer, stays as leader in the Mexican market and is the company with the largest share in "Change your old one for a new one" program, which the Federal Government implemented to replace old refrigerators for new more environment friendly appliances. Mabe wants to take this initiative to other home appliances. Francisco Anton Gabelich, Research, Development and Innovation Manager in Mabe's Technology and Projects Center, said that in 2009 they had a 44.9% share in FIDE Energy Savings Program. "We have a good image among consumers, who trust our products, which provide great benefits, such as saving energy and we are therefore asking the program, which still has some more months to go, is also applied to washing machines, to save not only power but water as well". Only in Mabe's Queretaro Plant, 7 thousand 400 refrigerators are produced every day, close to 1 million 100 thousand per year in four production lines, where frigo-bars, large refrigerators and conventional refrigerators are assembled.

Source: El Informador

The Tucson, Arizona-based Offshore Group has recently announced that it will hold its annual Manufacturing in Mexico Summit at the Camino Real Hotel in the city of Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico on October 14-16, 2010. In addition to receiving information on topics such as: • Comparative Advantages of Manufacturing in Mexico • Mexican Labor Law and Regulations • Customs and Environmental Issues • Costing a Mexican Manufacturing Facility • Operating Under a Shelter Plan • Mexico as a Bridge to the Global Market CEOs, CFOs, operation managers, company presidents and strategic planning personnel of manufacturing firms considering Mexico projects will have the unique opportunity to meet and share experiences with ranking executives from amongst Offshore Group clients in the aerospace, automotive, electronics, medical device, HVAC and general manufacturing industries. Additionally, private meetings with Offshore Group staff may be scheduled to obtain personalized cost model analyses of anticipated Mexico projects. For more information about the event, and company, contact 520-889-0022, ext. 1251, or visit the company's website from time to time for updates. The Offshore Group has enabled manufacturers to set up and maintain production facilities in Mexico since 1986. Fifty-one firms in all major industries currently employ an aggregate 10,000+ workers in The Offshore Group's modern, gated industrial parks in the Mexican state of Sonora, and the city of Saltillo, Coahuila. The Offshore Group also offers service to companies seeking to set up BPO, software development and call center/customer care centers in Hermosillo, Mexico through its Vangtel subsidiary.

Source: The Offshore Group

Mexico City,- Once again Mexico ranked first in the biennial study "KPMG Competitive Alternatives 2010" for having lower labor costs for manufactures, information technologies, and research & development areas. The analysis considers 95 cities from 10 countries in the world, all of them developed, except for Mexico, where they assessed, in addition to employee-related costs, transportation, power and financial costs, as well as taxes, required to open a production plant. By city, the first place in the world went to Monterrey, which jumped from the fifth place, while the second place was for Mexico City, which in 2008 was not taken into consideration. As country, KPMG concluded that installing a company in Mexico is an average of 18.2% less expensive than doing it in the United States, the referral point in the methodology used.

Source: El Mural