After being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, the auto production industry in Mexico is facing a 30% fall this year, with a 33% decrease in exports, Fausto Cuevas, Mexican Association of the Automotive Industry (AMIA) director general, told Freight Waves.
“In production, we don’t have enough information to make a concrete forecast; everything is changing, but we could see a drop in production of 28-30% and in exports a similar situation, with a decline from 30-33%,” Cuevas told Freight Waves. “It is important to see the behavior of the U.S. market. That will give us a pattern to know what will happen with production and export.”
Mexico on March 30 ordered the closure of all nonessential businesses to reduce the spread of COVID-19, which hit the auto production industry hard, the story said.
If the industry does experience the predicted drops, it would be the largest the industry in Mexico has ever seen, Cuevas told Freight Waves.
Miguel Elizalde, president of Mexico’s National Association of Producers of Buses, Trucks and Tractor-trailers, told Freight Waves that truck and bus manufacturing could also decline by 20% in 2002.
Another 32% decline could be seen in the billing parts and components, Oscar Albin, president of the Mexican Auto-parts Association, told Freight Waves.
Under the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) regulations, 75% of passenger vehicle parts and 70% of heavy duty truck parts must be made in North America by 2023, Freight Waves said.
