Cars Drive the Economy as Companies Invest $20 Billion in Mexico's Industrial Belt Ben Bain - Bloomberg
go to original February 7, 2015

Sparks fly as 200 robots weld and bolt together Nissan Sentras at one of the Japanese company’s factories in Aguascalientes, Mexico, on a cool December morning. The $2 billion facility, opened in November 2013, churns out 600 gleaming new cars a day and employs 3,000 workers. Acres of autos sit in the sun outside the plant, waiting to be loaded onto trains bound for the U.S., where consumers enjoying the lowest gasoline prices in five years are crowding auto dealerships, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its March issue.

The 192,000-square-meter (2.1-million-square-foot) Nissan Motor Co. plant is one of half a dozen that have sprung up or been announced for central Mexico’s industrial belt in the past five years, contributing to a nationwide $20 billion investment by global automakers eager to establish ready access to the U.S. market. Mexican vehicle exports are expected to rise to a record 2.9 million in 2015, with more than 70 percent of the cars and light trucks headed to the U.S., according to the Mexican Automobile Industry Association, or AMIA. December exports alone were up 21 percent over the previous year, to 195,091.

Mexico is also the world’s sixth-biggest manufacturer of auto parts, with an estimated $81.5 billion in sales in 2014, according to trade group INA.

“The growth in production and in exports has been spectacular,” Eduardo Solis, the AMIA’s president, told reporters in January. “The growth reflects the confidence the industry has in our country.”

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