Nissan investing $700mln to upgrade Mexico ops

The investment will focus on improving the Japanese automaker’s production facilities in the Mexican state of Aguascalientes, the company said.

Company documents show that Nissan manufactured more than 500,000 vehicles in Mexico between December 2020 and December 2021.

“This $700-million investment in our operations will ensure that we remain leaders in Mexico, while delivering cutting-edge vehicles and technology that excites our customers around the world,” chair of Nissan Americas Jérémie Papin said.

Production across the country’s automotive sector has been hobbled in recent months due to the lingering shortage of semiconductor chips and renewed restrictions sparked by the Covid-19 Omicron variant.

Auto production in Mexico fell by 2% year on year in 2021 to 2.98 million units, down from 3.04 million units in 2020, according to the national automotive association Amia.

Despite production disruptions, full-year 2021 domestic auto sales in Mexico totaled 1.01 million units, up by 6.80% from 950,063 units the previous year. Exports totaled 2.71 million units last year, up by a marginal 0.94% from 2.68 million units in 2020.

In the past several years, steelmakers such as Ahmsa, Voestalpine, Tenigal and Grupo Simec have made investments in Mexico to meet demand from the growing domestic automotive sector. The automotive industry is the main supplier of prime scrap to steel producers in the country.

Fastmarkets assessed the steel scrap No1 busheling, consumer buying price, delivered mill Bajío at 14,000 pesos ($686) per tonne on Tuesday May 3, up by 200 pesos from 13,800 pesos from the previous week.

Fastmarkets’ assessment of the steel scrap No1 heavy melt, consumer buying price, delivered mill Bajío stood at 11,200 pesos per tonne on Tuesday, unchanged from the prior week.