Attendees at Guanajuato event advised to expect a high level of growth in the Mexican automotive industry for the foreseeable future.

Last week Mexico Now magazine hosted its Auto Industry Summit at the Poliforum in Guanajuato, Leon. Guanajuato is one of the South Central Mexican states that has seen a large influx of automotive industry foreign direct investment over the last several years.

Eduardo Javier Solis Sanchez, the president of the Mexican Automotive Industry Association (AMIA), was one of the featured speakers. According to this expert long-time Mexican automotive industry watcher, with the production of “three million four hundred thousand light vehicles,” 2015 has been a prolific and productive year. To date, this number represents a record output for Mexico.

In comments made during the Mexico Now event in Leon, Guanajuato, Solis Sanchez asserted that, “the Mexican automotive industry will grow sixty percent between the present and the year 2020.” Furthermore the president of AMIA went on to state that, in order to be successful, the country must “face both the challenges and the opportunities that accompany growth.” It is predicted that, by 2020, Mexican automotive industry production of light vehicles will surpass a volume of five million plus units. With this industry expansion will come the benefits of job growth and creation, as well as challenges that include continuing to supply an educated and skilled workforce to the OEMs and suppliers that have invested in Mexico already, as well as those that will do so in the coming years. Additionally, upgrades in Mexican transportation and logistics infrastructure related to its ports, roadways and airports will need to be prioritized in order to keep pace with the growth of the Mexican automotive industry, as well as of the economy as a whole.

The Mexican automotive industry is the undisputed engine of the country’s manufacturing sector. It is responsible for the generation of nineteen percent of the country’s GNP, as well as twenty-five percent of its exported products. The value of Mexican auto industry shipments to global consumers, particularly those in the United States, exceeds US $50 billion.