Exports by aerospace industry in Mexico are expected to reach US$6 billion in 2013, which is US$1.5 billion over 2012, Alejandro Bravo, Partner in KPMG Consultants Firm and leader of this Mexican economic sector, affirmed.
Last year, according to KPMG’s figures, exports of aerospace goods exceeded US$4.5 billion, while in 2011 they amounted to US$4 billion.
The program for the acquisition of European aerospace companies by Mexican investors for technology transfer to Mexico has yielded its first fruit.
The initiative, known as Programa Cuervo, allowed Mexican investors to invest US$14 million to purchase 35% of the Italian company Villella Aerospace and open a subsidiary in Mexico, controlling 75% of such subsidiary. The European partners will contribute with know-how and will be responsible for technical operation.
Mexico’s economic growth and financial stability has attracted the interest of elite industrialized countries for investment; on May Tijuana received two delegations from Europe and Japan, interested in business opportunities to supply Tijuana’s manufacturing base.
Representatives of the Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies (SJAC) visited Tijuana to learn about the sector’s gowth in the City and establish relationships with industry leaders. Tijuana EDC, the Baja California Aerospace Cluster in coordination with Federal, State and Municipal authorities hosted the delegation comprised of seven firms from Japan including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Sumitomo Precision Products, Shin-Maywa Industries, Sumitomo Corporation, Hitachi Metals and the International Aircraft Development Fund.
For many smaller manufacturers following the bigger clients and building OEM relationships may be the safest — and sometimes most successful — entry strategy.
“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. The quality infrastructure was a nice surprise, but SU was drawn to Mexico by something more: thriving clusters of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers created by global aerospace clients coming into the country.
The Silicon Border industrial park has signed up with global property giant Jones Lang LaSalle to attract renewable-energy companies to its site in Mexico, close to the US border.
Basic infrastructure for the project was completed in 2010, but the global economic downturn stunted efforts to bring in tenants — renewables manufacturers, as well as aerospace and automotive factories.
It wasn’t too long ago that Mexico, like the rest of North America, was beginning to believe that China would eventually capture all the manufacturing to be had. It was true that many companies fled Mexico for the lower labor costs of China.In a report released in August of 2011, The Boston Consulting Group (BCG)noted that by 2015, wages in Mexico would be significantly lower than in China, pointing out that in 2000, Mexican factory workers earned more than four times as much as Chinese workers.
President Obama is meeting with executives from 14 companies Wednesday to encourage them to bring jobs back to the United States.
The so-called “Insourcing American Jobs” forum at the White House includes leaders from Ford (F, Fortune 500), DuPont (DD, Fortune 500), Intel (INTC, Fortune 500), Otis Elevators and Rolls Royce, among others.
“I’m calling on those businesses that haven’t brought jobs back to take this opportunity to get the American people back to work,” Obama said in prepared remarks. “That’s how we’ll rebuild an economy where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded — and a nation where those values live on.”
This year, the Aerospace Industry is expected to grow 14% in its exports with the installation of 12 manufacturing companies planned for 2012, said Carlos Bello, director of the “Mexican Federation of the Aerospace Industry (Femia)”.
Bello explained that in 2011, 4.400 million dollars were exported, in other words, 25% over the number in 2010.
The number expected for this year is of 5,100 million dollars, with a Direct Foreign Investment (IED) of 1,300 million dollars.
He also indicated that during 2012, 12 projects of manufacturing companies such as Bombardier, Safran and Eurocopter, will move forward and materialize in Sonora, Queretaro, Chihuahua and Baja California.
Global growth in the aviation and defense industries is set to slow down this year, but the effect of the downturn on emergent arms industries in Brazil and Japan remains far from certain.
Data cited by industry analysts indicates the economic crisis rolling on since 2008 may finally be catching up with the aerospace and defense industries, with the military drawdown in Afghanistan and Iraq prompting drastic reviews of “war on terror” policies affecting demand.
The Iran crisis and vigorous defense marketing in the Persian Gulf are seen as factors likely to reverse some of the current trends, analysts said. France is trying to sell its Rafale fighter jet to Arab countries, having failed so far to secure Brazil as a customer for the plane.
The Maquiladora industry along the Mexican border is on the rebound. These largely US-owned manufacturers suffered a double whammy over the past decade; competition from Asia drew factories across the Pacific, and then the US recession.
But now rising wages in China and a resurgent US auto industry are breathing new life into the maquilas in Tijuana. One of the most booming of border businesses is the aerospace industry.
“People’s perception about what cross-border manufacturing, what maquiladoras are like, is still based upon what was happening in the 70s and maybe the 1980s,” said Kenn Morris, president of Crossborder Group, a San Diego-based market research firm.
