Brazil
For more information, contact Achilles Arbex (aarbex@AMTonline.org).
Continental will invest $35 million to expand its Ponta Grossa, Parana, facilities to produce heavy-duty belts and cables for commercial vehicles and off-road/highway sectors by the end of 2024. The investment will allow for the modernization of existing machinery and equipment as well as the acquisition of state-of-the-art manufacturing technology.
Brazilian Tupy announced plans to invest $70 million over the next three years to expand its production capacity to meet the growing demand for high-added-value services and for technologies to accelerate the digital transformation of operations. Tupy also announced new partnerships with manufacturers of Class 8 (heavy) trucks in the North American market and pickup trucks for South America. These new partnerships were boosted by the expansion of subsidiary MWM’s portfolio of products and new business opportunities in North America due to the USMCA. Brazil and South American markets will also be supplied.
Neuman & Esser Brazil, an NEA Group company from Germany, began construction on the first green hydrogen generator factory in Latin America. To house the factory, the group will quadruple the manufacturing area of its unit in Belo Horizonte. The expected investment is $15 million. The site will be able to manufacture and integrate equipment for producing green hydrogen, such as PEM and alkaline electrolyzers, as well as ethanol and biomethane or natural gas reformers, which can be adapted according to the needs and resources available at each production site.
Yamaha do Brasil, a Japanese motorcycle manufacturer and the country's only manufacturer of outboard engines, announced investments of $100 million in the Brazilian market from 2023 to 2025. According to the company, around $80 million will be directed toward optimizing and expanding the production capacity of the Manaus plant and reducing carbon emissions.
Manserv, one of the most traditional companies in the industrial maintenance services market, which also operates in the building and intralogistics segments, has just entered the heavy machinery rental market. The company invested $80 million to create its Simak Rent division. Out of the $80 million, $50 million was allocated to the new company; the remaining $30 million investment will go into the business by the end of 2023. Simak was born with 1,300 machines and will lease trucks and equipment for the yellow (focused on handling materials and construction) and green (focused on agribusiness) lines.
Valmet/Metso Outotec is investing $6 million to construct a new service center in Sorocaba to support the growing demand for equipment to process paper pulp, cellulose, and energy. The service center will be capable of remanufacturing rolls and other heavy parts used in cellulose processing industries.
The National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) approved financing of $20 million for HT Micron, a company based in Sao Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, to invest in expanding production capacity and increasing innovation in its manufacturing process of semiconductors used in smartphones and tablets. The financing will allow HT Micron to acquire the machinery and equipment necessary for the development of the uMCPs (universal flash storage multi chips) line of chips, which will gradually replace the eMCPs (embedded multi chip package) chips currently produced by the company. In addition to meeting the new demands brought about by 5G service, the new chips will provide not only a reduction in footprint size of these components in smartphones but also an increase in data transfer speed.
Mexico
For more information, contact Carlos Mortera (cmortera@AMTonline.org).
Faurecia invested $147 million in Nuevo Leon to double the capacity of its two manufacturing plants in Apodaca. Faurecia plans for the two plants to be fully capable of producing seat lines, plastic interiors for doors, and instrument panels by the end of this year.
ZF Group announced an expansion of its Juarez plant with an investment of $194 million to support the growth of electric mobility in North America.
The Chinese company Paslin – which is dedicated to the design, construction, manufacture, and assembly of automated machinery for automotive welding systems, including both MIG welding and resistance welding – announced the construction of a new plant in Ramos, Arizpe, with an investment of $10 million. The company plans to supply Tesla, Magna, Martinrea, and Metalsa, among others, with automation machinery for welding systems.
Danfoss announced the construction of a new plant in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, where they manufacture scroll compressors and sensors for leak detection in refrigeration and air conditioning. The company seeks to satisfy the growing demand in North America for medium and large scroll compressors and sensors for refrigeration, air conditioning, and leak detection systems.
Norcast arrived in Torreon, Coahuila, with an investment of $25 million to lead the transformation and commercialization of aluminum parts.
Haitian Precision Machinery announced an investment of $55 million to build a new plant in Jalisco, Mexico, where they will manufacture CNC machines for the domestic market.
The Chinese-British automaker MG Motor and SAIC will invest $19 million in 2023 to expand the parts distribution center in San Luis Potosi. MG Motor expects to reach 5.5% of the market share in Mexico in terms of sales volume by the end of 2023.
Bosco announced a $283 million investment in its plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico. This will allow the company to produce electronic parking brakes for Tesla, BMW, and Nissan.
New investments continue in the first month of 2023 with the arrival of a new Mahle Behr Mexico plant. This plant will be of great importance for the value chain of the automotive sector, as it will produce heat exchangers for both electric and internal combustion vehicles. Investments are worth $58 million.
BMW Group announced an investment of $875 million in its Mexican plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, to start producing its Neue Klasse line of electric vehicles in the country in 2027. The allocation includes $500 million to build a battery production factory that will use Argentine and Australian lithium, which, in the future, could be supplied by Mexican production of lithium.
Mexican manufacturing exports represented 90% of total Mexican exports in the fourth quarter of 2022, when the value of exports by state reached $134 billion dollars. The participation of Chihuahua stood out at 14.8%; Coahuila at 12.5%; Baja California at 10.7%; Nuevo Leon at 9.5%, and Tamaulipas at 6.3%. Together, these states contributed 53.8% of the total value.
