Trends in NextGen Manufacturing Quarterly Newsletter | May 2012
Following the Big Boys to Mexico
"The infrastructure in Querétaro is every bit as good as in Oklahoma," says Bill Emery, CEO of Southwest United (SU), a $40 million company providing metal processing services to bigger aerospace manufacturers. In 2009, the firm made its first foray into an emerging market, forging a joint venture with Mexico-based Galnik, a supplier of aerospace plating services.
GM Wants to Close Plants in Favor of Low-Cost Countries
GM hopes in the next few years to build 80% of its future production growth in low-cost countries like Poland, Russia, China, India, Mexico and Brazil and export 300,000 vehicles to Europe from Mexico, Korea and China by 2016, trying to drastically cut its losses at Opel and its U.K. subsidiary, Vauxhall.
Open Economy Brings Rewards
Over the past couple of decades, Mexico has not only fulfilled its promise as one of the world’s leading exporting nations, it has also diversified its range of products and export markets. Six years ago, 90 per cent of exports went to the US, Mexico’s huge northern neighbor. Today, that market is less than 80 per cent of the total.
Audi to Set Up Production in Mexico
Audi, part of parent company Volkswagen AG, has seen extremely good sales in 2011, selling 1.3 million cars worldwide. With its recent demand, Audi plans to become the world’s largest luxury carmaker, overtaking its Bavarian neighbor BMW to produce 2 million cars by 2020. Riding on Audi’s success, Volkswagen also recently gave an ambitious plan to become the top selling carmaker in the world by 2018 and overtake Toyota Motor Corp. and General Motors Co. to sell 10 million cars.
Hella plans $100 million lighting plant in Mexico
Hella KGaA Hueck & Co. is investing $100 million in a new 215,000 square foot plant in central Mexico to produce automotive headlamps and rear lighting. Between 25-35 percent of the investment will be “relative to plastic injection molding,” Ignacio Moreno, a member of Hella Lighting’s executive board and CEO of Hella Lighting North & South America, told Plastics News on Feb. 10...
Mercedes Benz Plans to Double Sales by 2020 by Manufacturing in Mexico
Bruno Cattori, President of Mercedes Benz in Mexico, recently stated in an interview Mercedes Benz’s intentions of opening yet another manufacturing plant in Mexico this year. With this, Mercedes Benz Mexico plans to promote Germany internationally and increase its production capacity in North America.