Making Nearshoring Opportunities a Reality

Q: What does American Industries’ client portfolio look like? 

A: We have over 40 clients that manufacture automotive products as their main activity. Close to a third of our client portfolio comes from the automotive sector. In addition, American Industries is working with over 30 companies that are looking to establish operations in the country.

Our most important partnership is with our clients in supporting their growth and legal certainty in Mexico while daily assuring successful operations in the country. Our clients are the most important referral for our success. We also need to partner with the authorities so we can provide legal and regulatory certainty to our manufacturing clients in Mexico.

Q: What are American Industries’ complementary services to support customers venturing into a new country?

A: There are different ways in which we support our customers. American Industries helps manufacturing players with their site selection process by evaluating how much it will cost to operate in Mexico and what are the advantages of different locations for their project. We also provide shelter services. Through ongoing administrative services, we allow our foreign manufacturing clients to focus on production, while we take care of human resources, accounting, fiscal and customs tasks. Finally, we also offer real estate with AAA industrial manufacturing spaces that are available for lease, either build-to-suit or inventory buildings.

Our client base in shelter services totals 58 clients with more than 16,000 employees between them. Our services are provided in the most important manufacturing regions in the country, including Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Monterrey, Queretaro, Guanajuato and Guadalajara.

Q: What are your views on the nearshoring opportunities created by USMCA?

A: This is a great opportunity to attract more investment to North America because OEMs need to comply with rules of origin requirements, which will reward those suppliers that can manufacture in North America. Mexico is a very competitive option for them. In fact, we are working with several Chinese companies that are inquiring about Mexico as their manufacturing base for the Americas. This is a very important opportunity to further develop our Mexican manufacturing sector through Chinese investments.

Q: Which country, regions or states could take the most advantage of nearshoring opportunities?

A: We believe Mexico is the country best-suited to take advantage of the nearshoring opportunities in North America due to our competitive cost, legal certainty provided by USMCA and strong experience in the sector. We consider that all manufacturing regions in Mexico offer distinctive strengths for potential investors to evaluate. The most common elements when evaluating a new location are the distance to the end customer or suppliers, labor availability and security, which has become a key variable in the equation.

If we look at the different ways a company can establish operations in Mexico, namely greenfield projects, joint ventures and acquisitions, incoming companies usually prefer to establish by themselves because it is often difficult to find joint venture candidates or acquisitions targets. However, if they do want to explore some of these options, we provide guidance with the support of national and local business chambers and authorities.

Q: How does American Industries provide flexible options to clients to better face the pandemic?

A: We are continuously in touch with our clients, helping them to set up measures to reduce risks for all employees. We have taken advantage of some of the best practices from our international clients. For example, our Chinese clients were ahead of the curve in some of their safety practices and we have replicated those lessons and recommended similar measures to other clients.

Q: How has the pandemic influenced American Industries' strategies?

A: We believe that Mexico has become an even more important potential destination because the pandemic has created an urgent need to accelerate the nearshoring trend as travel to Asia has become more difficult. American Industries is gearing its efforts to taking advantage of this trend. In a post-COVID-19 world, we will continue to support the establishment of a resilient North American supplier base through our solutions for manufacturing companies looking to establish in the country.

American Industries is a Mexican company with over 40 years of experience supporting companies in transferring their manufacturing operations to the country. The company offers site selection, shelter services and real estate in Mexico’s top manufacturing destinations