More Car Jobs Shift to Mexico
U.S. production may decline over the next decade, despite the bailout
By Thomas Black
The Obama Administration spent more than $80 billion last year to prop up General Motors and Chrysler in a controversial effort to save millions of American manufacturing jobs. Both car companies have since stabilized, and business is also looking up at Ford Motor. Yet as they map out their investment plans in the year ahead, the U.S. auto companies will likely put most of their new jobs and plant capacity in Mexico, not the U.S., auto analysts predict.
Chrysler announced in February that it's spending $550 million to retool its factory in Toluca to assemble the subcompact Fiat 500 model. Last month, Ford reopened an assembly plant in Cuautitlán to build Fiesta compacts for the 2011 model year. The factory will generate 2,000 jobs and is part of $3 billion in investments in Mexico announced since 2008. In the U.S., Ford has closed four assembly plants since 2006 and plans to close four more facilities by the end of 2011.
Mexico's gains will come at the expense of workers in the U.S. and Canada, says Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Mexico's share of North American auto production will rise to 19 percent over the next decade, from an average of 12 percent from 2000 to 2009, according to DesRosiers. Over the same period the U.S. will lose 7 percentage points, to 65 percent of the market, and Canada's share will hold at 16 percent. "There is going to be more capacity put into North Americaand Mexico is going to get more than its fair share," he says.
Cont;
More Car Jobs Shift to Mexico - BusinessWeek
U.S. production may decline over the next decade, despite the bailout
By Thomas Black
The Obama Administration spent more than $80 billion last year to prop up General Motors and Chrysler in a controversial effort to save millions of American manufacturing jobs. Both car companies have since stabilized, and business is also looking up at Ford Motor. Yet as they map out their investment plans in the year ahead, the U.S. auto companies will likely put most of their new jobs and plant capacity in Mexico, not the U.S., auto analysts predict.
Chrysler announced in February that it's spending $550 million to retool its factory in Toluca to assemble the subcompact Fiat 500 model. Last month, Ford reopened an assembly plant in Cuautitlán to build Fiesta compacts for the 2011 model year. The factory will generate 2,000 jobs and is part of $3 billion in investments in Mexico announced since 2008. In the U.S., Ford has closed four assembly plants since 2006 and plans to close four more facilities by the end of 2011.
Mexico's gains will come at the expense of workers in the U.S. and Canada, says Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Mexico's share of North American auto production will rise to 19 percent over the next decade, from an average of 12 percent from 2000 to 2009, according to DesRosiers. Over the same period the U.S. will lose 7 percentage points, to 65 percent of the market, and Canada's share will hold at 16 percent. "There is going to be more capacity put into North Americaand Mexico is going to get more than its fair share," he says.
Cont;
More Car Jobs Shift to Mexico - BusinessWeek
