Thread: Mexican auto industry sets new records for output, exports

No question where the jobs in the US went and they continue to come here to mooch off of our welfare system and turn having kids into and industry Mexico and its people are not, in my opinion, our friends or ally.
Mexican auto industry sets new records for output, exports

Published January 10, 2013
EFE

Mexico's production of motor vehicles grew 12.8 percent last year to a record 2.88 million units as exports increased 9.9 percent to 2.35 million, also a new high, the AMIA industry association said Thursday.

The strength of the export sector compensated for slow sales at home, AMIA said.

The United States accounted for 63.9 percent of Mexico's foreign sales of cars and light trucks, while another 15.5 percent went to Latin American nations.

Domestic vehicle sales were up 9 percent last year compared with 2011, but the total was 10.2 percent lower than in 2007 and only slightly better than that of 2002, AMIA said, decrying "a lost decade" for the Mexican auto market.

With sales yet to return to the volumes reached prior to the 2008 global financial crisis, "the domestic market is far below the level where it should be," AMIA said. EFE

Read more: Mexican auto industry sets new records for output, exports | Fox News Latino

We get the social trash and poverty to support and our jobs are shipped South. Blame our government for this. JMO

UPDATE 2-Mexican October economic activity fans 4th-qtr optimism

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Thu Jan 10, 2013 12:26pm EST

* Mexico Oct economic growth 4.33 pct yr/yr; poll 3.8 pct

* Spending on new investment goods up 9.5 pct yr/yr in Oct

* Economists, investors see no change to interest rates

* Auto production edges up 0.02 pct in Dec -AMIA

MEXICO CITY, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Mexico's economic activity accelerated in October on strength in the services sector, easing fears that the global economic slowdown is dragging on Latin America's No. 2 economy.

Official data on Thursday showed annual economic activity grew 4.33 percent in the 12 months through October, trumping expectations for 3.80 percent growth in a Reuters poll. The pace outstripped the downwardly revised 1.21 percent expansion notched in the prior month.

"It's an important bounce, particularly in services," said Iker Cabiedes, an economist at JPMorgan in Mexico City, who said internal demand was helping to bolster an economy that had faltered in the third quarter. "The data indicates that we could see activity recover" in the fourth quarter.

Unexpectedly strong U.S. demand for Mexican-made cars and televisions has also helped maintain output despite a downturn in the global environment, and a raft of reforms proposed by new President Enrique Pena Nieto could further bolster growth.

The economic data, seen as a proxy for gross domestic product, prompted Mexican bank Banorte to revise its 2012 growth forecast up to 4 percent, from 3.7 percent. Barclays, which has been forecasting a 3.8 percent expansion, said the fourth quarter was looking better than expected.

Mexico's services sector, which makes up 65 percent of the economy, expanded 4.1 percent in the 12 months through October, while manufacturing activity picked up by 3.6 percent.

On a monthly basis, economic activity expanded by 0.16 percent in October, weighed down by a 0.86 percent contraction in manufacturing. That was below forecast for 0.69 percent growth in a Reuters poll.

In separate data, Mexico's automakers produced and exported a record number of vehicles in 2012, according to the Mexican Auto Industry Association (AMIA).
The central bank has held benchmark interest rates steady at 4.5 percent, in a bid to balance growth risks from a global slowdown and inflation pressures prompted by a spike in fresh-food prices in early 2012.

But annual inflation in December fell below the central bank's 4 percent tolerance ceiling for the first time in seven months, bolstering expectations that rates will remain on hold through mid-2014.

Mexico's biggest retailer, Wal-Mart de Mexico, said on Monday that sales at its Mexican stores open for at least a year rose 1.6 percent in December from a year earlier.

Other data released Thursday showed annual spending on new investment goods in Mexico rose in October by 9.5 percent, led by 19.3 percent expansion in investment in machinery and equipment. That compared with downwardly revised growth of 3.0 percent in the prior month.

"Mexico is enjoying certain international factors that are playing in its favor," said Ezequiel Aguirre, a Latin America strategist at Bank of America in New York, who noted that rising salaries in Chinaand expensive transport driven by higher fuels costs are pushing companies to relocate plants to Mexico.

But the monthly measure of spending on machinery, equipment and new construction was down 0.3 percent, below September's downwardly revised 0.97 percent expansion.

President Pena Nieto's administration, which began in December, has projected Mexico's economy will grow 3.5 percent in 2013, down from an estimated 3.9 percent in 2012 as the global slowdown weighs.

The chief of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Angel Gurria, on Wednesday said growth could touch 6 percent within the next six years if the new government succeeds in pushing through an ambitious reform agenda .

UPDATE 2-Mexican October economic activity fans 4th-qtr optimism | Reuters