MEXICO CITY: Mexico produced and exported record numbers of vehicles in April as the auto industry remained among the country’s best-performing manufacturing sectors.
Output of cars and light trucks rose 14% from April of 2014 to 283,392 units last month, bringing the total for the first four months of the year to 1.13 million, the Mexican Auto Industry Association said Thursday. Exports were 15% higher than a year before at 233,515 units, of which 71% went to the U.S.
Canada continued to increase its purchases of Mexican-made cars, buying 25,384, or 9.1% of the total in April. That was 38% more than in April 2014.
The domestic market for new cars also has picked up significantly in recent months, with sales in April rising 23% from a year earlier to almost 95,000.
The of the Mexican auto industry has been spurred by the country’s geographic proximity to the U.S., myriad trade pacts that span the globe, and relatively low labor costs, enticing auto makers from the U.S., Europe and Asia to build or expand plants in the country.
Last month, Toyota Motor Corp. said it will invest about $1 billion in a Mexican plant—its first in the country—to produce Corolla compact cars, and Ford Motor Co. said it will invest $2.5 billion to expand an existing plant in northern Mexico and add engine production there, while building a transmission plant in a central Mexico.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. said it will spend $550 million on a production plant in San Luis Potosí state.
