Mexico Maintains Its Position in the Auto Manufacturing Top 10

Mexico was the seventh largest vehicle producer in 2021, according to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA). Nonetheless, the national automotive industry is still facing challenges amid the current global scenario.

China led the pack in vehicle production, followed by the US and Japan. Despite logistics and supply hurdles, China produced 26 million units and grew its production by 3 percent. Meanwhile, the US produced 9 million vehicles, which led to 4 percent growth. India took away Germany’s position and became the fourth vehicle producer after experiencing growth of 30 percent. On the contrary, South Korea descended in the ranking with production of 3.4 million units, which was 1 percent less than in 2020. Germany positioned itself in sixth place due to a 12 percent drop in production.  

Specifically, light commercial vehicle production in the NAFTA region experienced growth of 7 percent. In this category, Mexico and the US experienced 10 percent growth while Canada produced 219,960 less units compared to 2020. Within Heavy Truck Production, OICA reports that the Americas Region produced 622,401 vehicles. In this category, the Asia-Oceania region experienced a -8 percent difference, the lowest variation among regions. However, in light vehicles, the latter region showed 7 percent growth in production, while the Americas suffered a -10 percent variation.

Globally, vehicle production grew 3 percent annually during 2021, according to OICA. However, the current numbers are still far from those reported before the COVID-19 outbreak as in 2019, the world produced 92 million vehicles while in 2021, only 12.9 million units were produced.

Global vehicle production is currently dealing with the Ukraine-Russian conflict and COVID-19. Chip shortages and supply chain disruptions are challenging automakers to continue their production. According to OICA, Mexico reduced its assembly operations by 1 percent from 2020 to 2021 amid production halts, supply chain disruption and components shortage. According to Guillermo Rosales, more production halts are expected to happen in Mexico apart from the ones of Toyota and Mazda that have already taken place, as reported by MBN.

The closing of plants is not only happening in the Mexican market. The recent COVID-19 outbreak in China is also forcing OEMs to pause their production in this country. Toyota, for example, will halt production at its Changchun plant, while Tesla halts production at its Shanghai plant.

“There is no way someone could have foreseen the current global scenario nor the one that will emerge in the coming months and years,” said Tarsicio Carreón, President, Cluster Automotriz de Chihuahua.