auto parts
A Mexican assembly plant.

 

As Mexico’s automotive manufacturing star has risen, so has Canada’s fallen. But Canadian auto parts manufacturers are undeterred, judging by their participation in a convention this week in Querétaro.

More than 40 Canadian automotive companies are registered for Automotive Meetings, an international conference that began yesterday and winds up tomorrow. The Canadian participation represents the most important commercial mission for the sector in several years, said Chantal Ramsay, the commercial attaché to Mexico for the province of Ontario.

No doubt it’s a reflection of the number of Canadian manufacturers who are part of Mexico’s automotive supply chain, a number that has contributed to “aggressive and innovative” investment, according to Flavio Volpe, president of the Canadian Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association (APMA).

During the Querétaro conference, Ontario will present its 2015 Canadian Automotive Footprint, the fourth edition of a directory of Canadian companies in Mexico that is designed to link those suppliers with Mexican buyers.

The directory lists 49 companies with more than 100 plants in Mexico, said Ramsay. In Querétaro alone there are 22.

For Volpe, the meeting is an opportunity for APMA to create and renew relationships with equivalent organizations and take the pulse of the needs and concerns of Canadian suppliers. The latter, he explained, can benefit from learning best practices in building and maintaining investments in Mexican automotive manufacturing.

One of those firms is Integrity Tool & Mold, which designs, manufactures and repairs plastic injection molds. It opened a plant in Querétaro in 2012.

“For us the automotive supply chain in Mexico represents new opportunities and continuing growth,” said assistant general manager Wayne McLaughlin.

The plastics tooling company Omega Tool Corporation is another Ontario-based firm that has invested in Mexico. It opened a new plant in December, also in Querétaro, which it built after it began exporting to Mexico 15 years ago.

Spokesman Richie Cascadden said the company’s new engineering and manufacturing technology offers Mexico the modernization it needs in the face of international competition.

The province of Ontario enjoys 71% of Mexico-Canada trade, and automotive is a big part of that. Among the top 10 products exported to Canada in 2013 were automobiles whose total value was US $2.2 billion, followed by transport vehicles worth $1.7 billion and parts, valued at $1.3 billion.

Also among the Canadian companies in Querétaro this week are Magna, Martinrea, Linamar, Summo, Laval Tool, Celestica, Concours Mold and MTP Molds.

The 2013 conference attracted 450 companies and 1,400 participants; 18 countries were represented.

Source: Notimex (sp)