by Charles W. Thurston
Latin America Correspondent
thurstoncw@rodmanmedia.com
Mexico’s burgeoning automo- tive industry will, once again, be receiving billions of dollars
in new OEM investment as the country
climbs the world ranks of national auto
production to seventh largest. As new
OEMs establish themselves and existing
OEMs expand operations, opportunities
for paint and coatings manufacturers will
grow markedly.
By 2020, Mexico will increase its current automotive production by 60 percent
to 4. 5 million vehicles per year, or one in
every four vehicles in North America, up
from one in six in 2012, according to research analyst IHS Automotive. As of the
end of the first half of this year, Mexican
automotive production exceeded that
of Brazil. Among the major automotive coatings companies that will benefit from this boom are PPG, Axalta and
Sherwin-Williams.
OEMs Come in New Wave
Among major OEMs who recently
announced plans for new factories in
Mexico is BMW, which announced in
July a $1 billion investment in San Luis
Potosi with capacity of approximately
150,000 vehicles per year. Reports also
circulated in July that Kia is considering a new manufacturing plant in
Monterrey with an annual capacity of
some 300,000 vehicles. These followed
an announcement in June that a joint
venture between Renault-Nissan and
Daimler would involve a $1.36 billion
investment in Aguascalientes to build
vehicles for the Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz lines.
Last year, Chrysler invested $1.23
billion in Saltillo, and several billion
worth of new Mexico investments also
were announced by Honda, Mazda and
Volkswagen. Analysts say that it is difficult to maintain a current count of
planned and ongoing investments in
Mexico’s automotive industry now.
Coatings Makers Also Boost
Investments
Among several automotive coatings
makers boosting production in Mexico
is Brazil’s Weg, which announced a
five-year plan in June to invest $210
million to expand in Mexico, of which
$100 million will be allocated to the
Huehuetoca site. The company serves
the automotive, industrial and white
goods segments.
In August, Axalta announced a commitment to invest $10.5 million in
Tlalnepantla to expand capacity to
produce resins used in transportation
coatings. Tlalnepantla is one of three
manufacturing centers for Axalta in
Mexico, and headquarters of the company’s businesses in Latin America.
“This investment underscores the
company’s commitment to support our
continued growth in Mexico with locally produced coatings,” explained Jorge
Cossio, president, Latin America for
Axalta, in the announcement. “The investment will support Axalta customers
in the light vehicle OEM and commercial transportation markets. In addition
to manufacturing products for Mexico,
the expansion also allows Axalta to better serve the broader Americas market,”
he said.
In April, PPG Industries announced
plans to invest more than $27 million in
its San Juan del Rio,
Similarly, Dürr announced plans
last year to expand its paint equip-
ment production capacities with a new
facility in Querétaro that would boost
their Mexico production by 50 per-
cent. The company will supply the new
Audi paint line, an April announce-
ment indicated. CW
Mexico Automotive Investments to Boom, Again
