Luminous AllianceBP Solar has entered into an agreement with Jabil Circuit to assemble BP Solar modules for the North American market in Jabil’s plant in Chihuahua, Mexico, as the company banks on increased solar demand in North America and Europe. The agreement calls for an initial capacity of 45 MW with the opportunity for expansion as demand increases. Production will begin in the second quarter.
The plans expand BP Solar’s efforts to cut costs for its solar power panels and the manufacturing deal that the solar player struck with Jabil in October 2009, to manufacture BP Solar modules in Poland for the European market.
www.bp.com / www.jabil.com
Mexico will play a key role in the renovation of Chrysler. After the carmaker emerged from government-backed bankruptcy in 2009, it formed a global strategic alliance with Italy’s Fiat Group and now the partners are investing 550 million usd in Mexico to produce a retro-version of an Italian icon, the Fiat 500.
The vehicles would be produced at Toluca, one of five Chrysler plants in Mexico, and would start distribution at year-end.
Toluca’s plant could produce up to 130,000 Fiat 500s a year, with 95% slated for export to the US and Latin America.
The investment would generate 400 direct jobs and more than 1,200 indirect ones.
The automotive industry represents 20% of Mexico’s manufacturing GDP and more than 70% of its exports go to the US.
www.chryslergroupllc.com / www.fiat.com
As it looks for new markets to boost revenues, Lowe’s Cos. Inc., the world’s second-largest home improvement retailer, opened its first two stores in Mexico, in the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León. The company has invested approximately 18 million to 20 million usd in each store and about 430 associates have been hired to operate both stores along with the company’s offices in Monterrey. The store openings in Mexico continue Lowe’s long-term International growth strategy.
www.lowes.com
Nissan Motors opened a design center in Mexicali, Baja California. The carmaker is likely to spend close to 10 million usd over the next 10 years on its Baja California facility.
Mexico has been a target for growth for the Japanese carmaker ever since it entered the country in 1961, as it seeks to benefit from its proximity to the US market and its strong trade ties with high demand potential neighbors in the south.
Nissan’s Automotive Modeling Center in Mexicali is expected to help San Diegobased Nissan Design America –one of the carmaker’s three other global design centers–to develop models keeping Mexican and South American tastes in mind.
www.nissan-global.com
Mexico will participate at the 2010 PDAC International Convention, Trade Show & Investor Exchange, to be held in Toronto from March 7 to 10, 2010. The country will offer information regarding mining opportunities, as well as other strategic subjects for investors, such as Mexican legal framework, mining potential areas and tax incentives. PDAC is the world’s leading convention and trade show for the mineral exploration industry, jointly organized by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) and the Canadian Association of Mining Equipment and Services for Export (CAMESE).
www.pdac.ca
America Móvil, Latin America’s biggest mobile operator, could invest between 3 billion and 3.5 billion usd in its operations in the Americas during 2010. The company operates in 18 countries in the region and reported 201 million wireless subscribers at the end of 2009. Mexico is its largest market, where its Telcel unit had a 72% market share at the end of the third quarter of 2009, with 58.4 million subscribers. Around 850 million usd will be invested in Mexico.
www.americamovil.com
The parcel delivery company Estafeta will increase its investment in Mexico by 66%, going from 15 million to 25 million usd in 2010. With this investment a 6% growth in sales is expected, a figure higher than that recorded in 2009, which was 2%. Of the total investment, 13 million usd will be allocated to the renewal and growth of the company’s vehicle fleet, 4 million will be used to increase infrastructure and 8 million will be invested in technology development to reduce customer service and package delivery times.
www.estafeta.com.mx
Grupo México, Mexico’s largest mining company, has purchased the oil-drilling company Compañía Perforadora de México (Pemsa) for 240 million usd, to increase its stake in the infrastructure development industry.
Pemsa, which posted a revenue of 91 million usd in 2009, has worked with Mexican state-owned oil company Pemex for 49 years. It offers drilling services for onshore and offshore facilities.
www.grupomexico.com
US industrial gases producer Praxair Inc. will invest 150 million usd in Mexico this year. The investment will be made at plants in the central Mexican towns of Ciudad Sahagún and Tepeji del Río, among others.
To date, Praxair has 300 Mexican production and service facilities constructed over the last 40 years. Among its many Mexican operations, it supplies nitrogen to state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), to increase petroleum recovery.
The US based firm, the largest industrial gases company in the Americas, invested 350 million usd in Mexico during 2008-2009.
www.praxair.com
Mexican IT consultancy North American Software (Nasoft) will receive an 8 million usd International Finance Corporation (IFC) investment to expand operations into new and existing Latin American markets. The IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, will receive an 18% stake in the privately held information technology firm in exchange for its investment. Nasoft is putting up another 4 million usd for its expansion, for a total investment of 12 million usd.
Nasoft was founded in 2000 as a private Mexican enterprise, providing business applications consulting services in Mexico, Central America and the US. Nasoft primarily serves large domestic and international private sector companies and progressively a growing number of SMEs. The company is a top business partner of leading enterprise software application vendors.
www.nasoft.com
The Spanish company Renovalia Energy will build a wind farm in Oaxaca, southern Mexico, that will have 114 wind turbines with 228 megawatts of installed capacity and will be the second largest wind farm in Mexico.
This latest wind project came to fruition after a contract of collaboration between Renovalia Energy International, Desarrollos Eólicos Mexicanos and Gesa México, the Mexican subsidiary of the Spanish Gamesa Wind.
The Piedra Larga wind farm will cost 300 million euros (about 410 million usd) and, according to company estimates, it will produce 841 gigawatt hours (GW/h) of electricity annually.
The electricity produced will supply 14 plants of Grupo Bimbo, one of the largest baking companies in the world, for a period of 15 years.
The annual production of the 228 MW wind farm will replace 49,020 tons of oil equivalent (TOE) per year and prevent the emission into the atmosphere of 342,000 tons of CO2 per year.
www.renovaliaenergy.es
French helicopter producer Eurocopter expects sales in Mexico and the surrounding region to rise 10% in 2010 from 305 million usd in 2009. The company, which sells helicopters to civilians as well as governments and their militaries, has risen in recent years to become the market leader in the region, claiming a 57% share in 2009, up from 34% in 2004.
The sales outlook applies to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, in addition to Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. The company delivered 24 helicopters last year to those countries.
In addition Eurocopter, a subsidiary of Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence & Space, is developing a long-term program to eventually assemble complete helicopters in Mexico, where it currently has a service facility in its hangar at Benito Juárez International Airport in Mexico City.
www.eurocopter.com
Mexican flavors will soon invade Russia as the Russian Federal Supervision Service has approved 28 Mexican food companies to export products to that country. Russia has announced its interest to buy Mexican products such as shrimp, cereals, grains and poultry, as well as increasing its current purchase of Mexican beef and horse meat.
www.sagarpa.gob.mx
INEOS Group has agreed terms for the sale of its fluorochemicals business to Mexichem, leading Latin American producer of PVC pipes and resin, chloralkali, hydrofluoric acid and fluorspar. The deal comprises the international business and assets related to INEOS’ fluorochemical operations located in North America, Europe, and Asia. It is expected that on completion of the transaction, programmed for the end of March 2010, the business will become an integrated, global producer of specialty fluorochemicals with worldwide presence and an annual sale revenue of over 500 million usd.
www.mexichem.com.mx / www.ineos.com
Denmark-based professional cleaning equipment company Nilfisk-Advance invested 10 million usd in a new plant in Querétaro, Mexico, where the company estimates it will employ 200 people for the assembling of professional industrial cleaning equipment.
The move is in line with the company’s global growth strategy and is designed to provide logistical and cost advantages. For over 40 years, Nilfisk-Advance has distributed its products in Mexico through authorized dealers. In 2006 the firm, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of professional cleaning equipment, established its own sales company in Mexico City and followed up with sales companies in Argentina and Chile in 2008. The new plant will work as the company’s “springboard” to all of Latin America.
www.nilfisk.com
