MEXICO CITY (El Universal).— Mexican companies depend today more than ever on Asian imports, given their inability to produce with less content from that region, as requested by the US, representatives of the Private Initiative agreed.
In this regard, the Secretary of Economy, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, reported that the current administration set the goal of replacing purchases from China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan, to strengthen national value chains, especially in the sectors that matter most. such as automotive, electronic, aerospace, semiconductors, medical devices, as well as energy generation and accumulation.
Between January and August, the country imported a historical maximum of 114 billion dollars in merchandise produced in these four markets, which means 14% above the same period in 2023 and more than double that of a decade ago, data from the Bank indicate. from Mexico.
Of this amount, 85 billion came from China and 11 billion from Taiwan, headquarters of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the most valuable semiconductor company in the world.
Although during the last six-year term three different industrial policies were launched to substitute imports, goods made in Mexico that are sold abroad have an average national content of between 10% to 25%, depending on the elements that are considered labor. work and inputs, announced the director of the Committee on Agreements, International Treaties and Statistics of the National Council of the Maquiladora and Export Manufacturing Industry (Index), Israel Morales.
United States legislators are putting great pressure on us not to team up with China, they even ask that Mexico apply tariffs on Chinese products that enter Mexican territory, as the White House did, the businessman explained.
“This China phenomenon is pushing and forcing us to find mechanisms to strengthen supply chains and that is where we must generate opportunities for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs in Mexico,” he said. “However, import substitution is not with tariff decrees, but with the creation of the economic environment through infrastructure and investment. The pharaonic works are also valid, but first we must attend to energy generation, transmission, distribution and a lot of work must be done in water works to take advantage of the water we have, as well as improve infrastructure, ports, roads and railways,” he said.
The government has identified the 50 companies that import the most inputs, among which are GM, MG, Lenovo, Ford, Apple, Intel, DHL and Mabe.
Less import
The president of the Index, Humberto Martínez Cantú, said that importing less raw materials, parts or chips requires suppliers and machines to produce them here, which we lack.
“In order to have national content you have to have suppliers, but from one day to the next you won’t have them. The government has to offer infrastructure, tax facilities, expedite permits, among other elements,” he emphasized. “The United States today is suffering because there are no semiconductors,” he said.
Chinese company profit in Mexico
The Yutong automotive company, with sales through projects of the governments of the Republic.
Buses to the states
The Chinese automaker Yutong has sold a total of 1,068 electric, hybrid, gas and diesel buses since its arrival in the country in 2018. Yutong has a presence in eight cities and the Mexican capital is its main market, where it delivered 428 units as part of the plan to rehabilitate the Trolleybus network with the capacity to transport up to 10 thousand passengers each day.
More units
It placed 61 more buses for the first 100% electric Metrobús line, as well as another 171 diesel units. Mérida, with the Va y Ven, is second, having ordered up to 317 units.
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