Automotive News Canada - July 2017 - 14

* JULY 2017

ABC Group's Mexico
operations include
systems for HVAC,
air induction and
fluids.

Centerline Mexico has been
at its current location in
Queretaro for 10 years.

PART 4 OF A SERIES
FOR PROFILES PUBLISHED SO FAR:

Linamar opened its
Mexico operations in
1998. The company
now has five facilities.

Canada.autonews.com/mexicoprofiles

(PHOTO: LINAMAR)

WELDING
EQUIPMENT
MAKER

FORGES
AHEAD
By STEPHANIE WALLCRAFT

ABOUT
THIS
SERIES

More than 60
Canadian automotive parts supply companies do significant
manufacturing business in Mexico under
the North American
Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), employing
hundreds of Mexicans
and Canadians there.
Given profound integration in North
America's automotive industry and talk
of imposing new tariffs
on vehicles imported
to the United States
from outside its borders, interest and
concern around the
Trump administration's
intent to renegotiate
NAFTA are similarly high; there is much
at stake. In an effort
to better understand
the extent of engagement and investment
that Canadian companies have made
and are making in
Mexico, Automotive
News Canada will profile those companies
five at a time over the
months to come, and
report on how they're
coping amidst the
uncertainty.

TORONTO CORRESPONDENT

CENTERLINE MEXICO

THE FACILITY, BASED IN THE MAIN
industrial park in the northern part of
the state of Queretaro, houses two separate divisions. The electrodes division is
responsible for fabricating consumables for
the company's welding equipment; and the
machinery division designs, manufactures,
assembles, and installs pedestal welders
and robotic cells. The company has rented its current facility for the duration of its
10-year tenure in Mexico and employs 100
nationals. While all fabrication is managed
in-house, some processes are outsourced to
Mexico-based suppliers. Carlos Cano, general manager of Centerline Mexico, says
that no changes are anticipated as a result of the
impending renegotiation of
the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
"We have proceeded with
the business plan created at
the end of the year and sales
are better than forecasted,"
he told Automotive News
Canada.

INDUSTRIA ELECTROMAGNETICA
DE MEXICO

WITH TWO LOCATIONS SITUATED
about 500 kilometres south of Tucson,
Ariz., alongside the Gulf of California, St.
Clair Technologies has had operations in
Mexico since 1996. Today, the Wallaceburg,
Ont.-based company employs about 1,200
Mexico nationals, most through a shelter
company from which it also leases its facilities, as well as fewer than five Canadians
at any given time. Wiring harnesses are
manufactured at both facilities for a variety of industries including automotive, and
processes are overseen locally by an experienced Mexico-based management team,
most of whom have been with St. Clair for
more than 10 years. Scott Huerter, the company's director of sales, says that plans

St. Clair Technologies employs
about 1,200 Mexican nationals at its
Industria Electromagnetica
de Mexico facilities.

continue unabated
IGB AUTOMOTRIZ
despite the uncertainty being creatLINAMAR MACHINING
ed by the direction
INDUSTRIA
of the current U.S.
administration. "St.
ELECTROMAGNETICA
LINAMAR MACHINING
Clair has developed
DE MEXICO
LINAMAR
MACHINING
a contingency plan to
GRUPO ABC DE MEXICO
address the uncertainty, but our strategy remains
CENTERLINE MEXICO
focused on manufacturing in
Mexico," he said.

GRUPO ABC DE MEXICO

THE FOUR OPERATIONS OVERSEEN
by the Mexico subsidiary of Toronto's
ABC Group are part of the company's global network of more than 30 manufacturing facilities. There are also locations in
Canada, the United States,
Brazil, Europe, Japan,
and China. ABC Group
specializes in the manufacture of plastic components and systems for the
automotive industry. The
Mexico operations, the
first of which was established in 1990, support the
company's automaker customers in the central state
of Queretaro with business units such as
HVAC, air induction, fluids, and interior and exterior products. The vice-president in Mexico who is responsible for overseeing the four facilities reports directly
to the chief operating officer based at the
Canadian head office.

IGB AUTOMOTRIZ

THIS PRODUCER OF HEATING AND
ventilation elements for automotive seating as well as heating elements for steering wheels is based in Agua Prieta,
Sonora, directly across the U.S.-Mexico
border from Douglas, Ariz. Parent company IGB Automotive established this
Mexico operation in 2002 in a leased facility and has since expanded to employ
nearly 700 nationals. The facility's management reports directly to the vice-pres-

ident of North America
operations based at the head
office in Windsor, Ont. When asked
if IGB Automotive is anticipating any
changes due to the impending renegotiation of NAFTA, Account Manager Reinold
Kostiuw said, "Not at the moment.
Obviously, we're going to be aware of it
and following it."

LINAMAR MACHINING AND ASSEMBLY
CANADA-MEXICO GROUP

THE FIVE FACILITIES THAT COMPRISE
Linamar's Mexico operations, which
opened in 1998, supply precision metallic powertrain components, modules and
systems - including cylinder heads and
blocks, camshafts, balance-shaft assemblies, gears, clutch modules, differentials,
and other parts - to automotive-business customers. The Tamaulipas location
is strategically positioned directly across
the United States-Mexico border from
Laredo, Tex.; the rest are positioned within close proximity of the company's customers in the northern Mexico automotive industry. Its more than one million
square feet (93,000 square metres) of manufacturing floorspace combined across
all locations employs more than 4,000
workers. - ANC

http://Canada.autonews.com/mexicoprofiles

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - July 2017