Industry Ready for Tamaulipas’ Infrastructure Challenges: CMIC

Gerado Holguín, recently elected President for the Tamaulipas district of the Mexican Chamber of the Construction Industry (CMIC), said that the local sector is ready to face the challenges of creating infrastructure for the state during his appointment ceremony. In the past year, many local infrastructure contracts were handed to non-CMIC members.

The ceremony took place at Expo Tampico, where Holguín said that he asked the federal, state, and municipal authorities to develop public projects through CMIC members and not via “outsiders”. 

“CMIC is ready, we expect to be included in the development of works and services that improve [the state’s] mobility, image and economy. This is our purpose and, for that reason, we want the local construction companies to benefit,” Holguín said.

The ceremony was attended by Francisco Cabeza de Vaca, Governor of Tamaulipas, Jesús Nader, Mayor of Tampico, Eduardo Leal, Member of the Confederation of Industrial Chambers (CONCAMIN), as well as by other state and municipal players. 

The construction sector reported profits of over US$664 million in 2021, which represents a decrease of over 26 percent in comparison with 2020’s results, according to CMIC’s Economic Studies Center, this despite a post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery. Over 2021, the works the public sector contracted dropped by 55 percent, while private contracting grew by 2 percent. 

According to CMIC Tamaulipas, affiliated companies benefited from just 38 of 2021’s infrastructure plans, totaling profits of US$22 million. According to the chamber, state entities like the Ministry of Public Works and the Institute for Physical Education Infrastructure (ITIFE) granted 90 percent of their projects to non-CMIC members in 2021. 

The public works ministry granted 157 projects to non-CMIC companies with an estimated value of over US$141 million, which represents 87 percent of last year's portfolio. Similarly, ITIFE granted 26 of 29 works to non-CMIC members, representing an estimated US$4 million. 

Among these non-CMIC companies are DLGS Constructores, with three projects, Productos y Servicios de Tamaulipas, with four projects, Asfaltos y Concretos, with five projects, as well as ICO del Golfo and Grupo Contructiva Mexicana de Tamaulipas, with two works each. 

CMIC is an organization that represents, supports and empowers construction companies in Mexico. It has 9,000 affiliates in 44 districts and works in a coordinated manner with public and private initiatives.