The Great Recession related to US housing and banking failures in 2009 hit the Mexican vehicle industry very hard. Production in Mexico declined by 28% from 2.10 million units 2008 to 1.51 million units in 2009. This dropped Mexico to 10th in the world. However, production shot up 50% in 2010 to 2.26 million and grew to 2.56 million in 2011 (data from Mexican Automotive Industry Assn.) It is expected to hit 3.1million in 2012. This enabled Mexico to move past Spain and France into 8th place.
Virtually all of this growth has been in the export sector. In 2011, almost 84% of all vehicles made in Mexico were exported. In fact, sales of Mexican made new cars in Mexico dropped from 1.1 million in 2007 to 0.76 million in 2009. It only rebounded to 0.82 million in 2011. It is expected to increase 11% in 2012 to 1.0 million, still lower than the 2007 level.
In 2011, almost 84% of all vehicles made in Mexico were exported. This export percentage clearly suggests that these manufacturers are primarily focused on selling their Mexican made vehicles in the USA and Canada.
Production is expected to continue increasing rapidly in the years ahead as evidenced by the following recent news releases:
- “Nissan investing $2 billion in (Aguascalientes) Mexico plant”, McClathy newspapers 26 January 2012 .
- “Ford to invest $1.3 billion in northern Mexico plant”, (Hermosillo), Reuters, March 2012 .
- “VW to Invest $1 Billion in Mexico Over Next 3 Years”, Herald tribune Latin America, 19 Dec 2012 .
- “Chrysler, Fiat SpA to invest $1B in Mexico plant”, The Detroit News, Nov 2012 .
- “Honda to Build New Automobile Plant in Celaya, Mexico”, $800 million plant will produce Honda Fit starting 2014, Aug. 2012 .
- “General Motors to invest $540 million in Central Mexico,”, International Business Times, Jan 2011 .
- “Mazda to Make Toyota Cars at Mexico Plant” (will make 50,000 Toyotas and 140,000 Mazdas starting in 2014), Wall Street Journal, 9 Nov 2012.
- “Why Mazda, Nissan, Volkswagen and Honda invest $2 billion in Mexico”, Torquenews, Aug 2011.
- “Audi Picks Mexico for New Plant”, thetruthaboutcars.com, April 2012.
- “BMW is purported to be scouting a Mexican location for a new auto plant”, Bmwblog.com, Aug. 2012.
Source of data:
Mexican Automotive Industry Assn. “Mexico’s Automotive Production & Exports Hits Record High in November (2012)” (pdf file)
Related posts:
- Mexico’s vibrant autoparts sector ( Sept 2011)
- Where are Mexico’s vehicle assembly plants located? (Aug 2011)
- Why has Mexico become one of the world’s top ten vehicle-making countries? (Sept 2011)
- Car-makers building new assembly plants in Mexico (Aug 2011)
- Rapid growth in Mexico’s vehicle manufacturing and assembly sector. (Sept 2012)
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