Latin America
by Charles W. Thurston
Latin America Correspondent
thurstoncw@rodmanmedia.com
Mexico’s burgeoning aerospace and efense (A&D) manufacturing in- dustry is increasing its demand for
thermal spray coatings. With compositions that
include an array of metals ranging from aluminum to tungsten, these coatings are presenting
tensile bond strengths in thousands of pounds
per square inch.
Logging a growth rate of approximately
20 percent per year over the past five years,
Mexico’s aerospace and defense industry
reached the $7 billion sales level in 2013 with
approximately $5.5 billion of that exported,
according to a 2015 report by a PwC Mexico.
Mexico’s Secretario de Economía, Ildefonso
Guajardo, estimated that exports for 2015
reached $7.2 billion. Exports by the industry
are expected to exceed $12 billion by the end
of this decade.
Over the past 20 years, some $3 billion
of foreign investment has gone into Mexico’s
A&D industry, with leading recipient states including Querétaro – with has captured about
half of all FDI, Baja California, Chihuahua and
Nuevo León. Overall, some 300 companies are
involved in A&D manufacturing in Mexico,
employing some 45,000 workers.
The Mexican government is fostering
growth in the industry with its Pro-Aeréo 2012
– 2020 Plan, with the goal of having Mexico
place among the top 10 suppliers in the A&D
industry worldwide, up from a current position
of about 15th. Currently, Mexico is the fourth
largest manufacturer in the hemisphere, following the United States, Canada and Brazil.
The industry also may boost its defense
element. Mexico’s Secretariat of Defense
(SEDENA) hopes to design and build a twin-seat fixed-wing aircraft and a pair of experimental planes for basic flight training by 2018,
following on the heels of Brazil’s Embraer.
“Unlike most of the aeronautical manufac-
turing operations in Mexico which only produce
independent aircraft parts and components,
there are four platforms which will produce
practically the full aircraft airframe, to which,
the other systems could be added on to produce
a finished product,” observed the PwC report.
Among major coatings suppliers to Mexico’s
A&D industry is Axalta, which markets Latin
America as a whole from its Colombia location,
according to Karla Tortolero, the manager, marketing and strategic planning Andean Region
and Central America at Axalta Coating Systems.
One Sherwin-Williams distribution hub for
its aviation products is Hawker Beechcraft
Services, in Monterrey. Other international
suppliers to Mexico include AkzoNobel, BASF,
Henkel and PPG.
Among the major players in the A&D
industry with a presence in Baja California,
Mexico are: Asteelflash; Benchmark
Electronics; Conesys; CST; Cubic; Delphi;
Eaton; Esterline; Honeywell; Kavlico;
Lockheed Martin; Smiths Connectors, Smiths
Interconnect; and Zodiac Aerospace, according to Co-Production International, an aviation manufacturing administrative services
provider based in San Diego.
Aerospace coatings services provider, Ellison
Surface Technologies, based in Cincinnati,
Ohio, recently gained accreditation by the
National Aerospace and Defense Contractors
Accreditation Program (Nadcap) for its
Guaymas, Sonora state facility.
“I am proud of our team in Guaymas and
excited for the growth of this operation as we
become an integral part of the aerospace and
industrial gas turbine manufacturing hub in
Sonora,” said C. Michael Ellison, the president
and CEO of Ellison, at the time. CW
Logging a
growth rate of
approximately 20
percent per year
over the past five
years, Mexico’s
aerospace and
defense indsutry
reached the
$7 billion sales
level in 2013 with
approximately
$5.5 billion of that
exported.
Mexico Aerospace Coatings Market Rises
