Mexico expects to make 3 million vehicles a year

TOLUCA, Mexico — Mexico President Felipe Calderon said today he expects Mexico to make three million vehicles a year within five years. It currently produces about two million per year.

Calderon made the remark while helping Chrysler LLC unveil a $1 billion supplier park next to its vehicle assembly plant here.

“We are winning the battle (for new investment) against India and China,” Calderon said. “The responsibility of my government is to create a favorable climate for investment.”

Calderon said that in the remaining five years of his term (there’s no re-election in Mexico) his administration would concentrate on developing the automotive, aeronautical, information technology and electronic industries.

The plan was for the four sectors to produce 60 percent of the country’s gross national product (GNP). Currently, he said, the automotive industry alone contributes 5 percent to the national GNP.

“This (automotive) industry provides more than 1 million jobs in Mexico and for this reason my government will promote it more and more.”

In 2008, Calderon said, the Mexican government would invest $10 billion (5 percent of the country’s GNP) on national infrastructure, 2 percentage points up from the figure for 2007.

About 1,600 new jobs will be created by eight suppliers in the Chrysler Supplier Park.

Tenants so far include Gestamp, TRW Automotive Inc., HBPO, IPO, Android, Brose Automotive, Magna Intier and Seglo. The park will provide components for the new Journey crossover, which Chrysler is preparing to start assembling in the adjacent plant for world markets.

Chrysler has not said officially how many Journeys it will produce in Toluca but Calderon said the number would be 200,000 units per year.

“Chrysler Park helps make Toluca a highly competitive assembly operation," said Oscar Albin, purchasing and suppliers quality director of Chrysler Mexico. "This operation's total annual purchasing scope is more than $300 million, giving us tremendous opportunity."

The Chrysler Park suppliers will make component modules to be delivered to the assembly plant in just-in-time order. Chrysler said the suppliers will take just-in-time one step further to "just in sequence." This means the suppliers deliver the modules directly to the assembly line; not only on time, but in sequence, Chrysler says.