On December 23th 2020, it was published in the Federal Official Gazette (Diario Oficial de la Federración, DOF) the resolution by which the Council of The National Minimum Wages Commission (CONASAMI) of Mexico states de general and professional minimum wages that will come into force since January 1^st 2021.

The National Minimum Wages Commission (CONASAMI) of Mexico approved a salary increase for next year of 15%, starting January 1^st 2021.

The minimum wage will increase from $ 123.22 MXN pesos to $ 141.70 MXN pesos per day in most of the country, while in the Free Zone of the North Border it will increase from $ 185.56 MXN pesos to $ 213.39 MXN pesos per day.

In addition, two professions will be integrated into the list of professional minimum wages, which are: domestic workers, with an increase of 25%; with respect to the general minimum wage in the rest of the country in force in 2020. The other profession is agricultural worker, who will receive a 30% increase over the current minimum wage.

With this increase, Mexico climbs eight positions internationally in terms of the minimum wage, ranking 76 out of 135 countries. The aspiration in the current administration is to achieve a position among the first 60 countries with the highest salary perceptions.

For more information please visit: http://dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=5608587&fecha=23/12/2020

The UK has signed a continuity trade deal with Mexico worth more than £5 billion to avoid tough tariffs on exports after Brexit, the government has announced.

International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said the agreement will allow the two countries to “take our trade to new heights” as it seeks to negotiate a further trade deal next year.

The UK-Mexico Trade Continuity Agreement is expected to benefit the automotive, pharmaceutical, textiles, agriculture, food and drink sectors, as well as other manufacturing industries.

The deal will keep tariffs on car and UK drinks exports at 0%, saving tens of millions of pounds in duties which would have been applied under World Trade Organisation terms.

The countries have also agreed to start negotiating a new free trade agreement next year which hopes to go further than the existing deal.

Ms Truss said: “This deal supports a trading relationship worth more than £5 billion and locks in access to each other’s markets.

“We look forward to working together with our Mexican friends and allies on a new and ambitious trade agreement in 2021. This will allow our two countries to go much further in areas such as data, digital trade, investment, intellectual property and services.

“This is also the seventh trade deal we’ve secured with a member of CPTPP, the grouping of 11 dynamic economies around the Pacific. So, it’s another really important stepping stone toward the UK joining CPTPP, and I look forward to making our application to do just that early next year.

“Together we’ll enjoy even more success by seizing this opportunity to take our trade to new heights. International trade will help us to overcome the challenges of coronavirus and drive economic growth across our United Kingdom.”

It comes as the UK continues post-Brexit trade talks with the European Union – with just over two weeks until the transition period ends.

It is unclear whether a deal will be struck as the clock runs down and crucial issues remain to be resolved.

Three topics are yet to be agreed on – governance, the ‘level playing field’ and fisheries.

It is understood concessions may be being made by both sides in a last-ditch attempt to come to a deal.

Source: LBC

( https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/uk-signs-post-brexit-trade-deal-mexico-avoid-no-deal-tariffs/)

A manufacturer with a long history in Lee County is closing its Sanford plant and moving the operation to Mexico, a move that means more than 300 local layoffs.

Marelli North Carolina USA, a subsidiary of Italian automotive part maker Marelli, is permanently closing the site, ceasing all production in the second half of 2021. In a layoff notice filed with state officials last week, the company said the closure means job losses for 329 employees.

The plant is located at 2101 Nash Street, southeast of downtown Sanford.

“The automotive industry is facing a number of prolonged challenges,” the company’s general counsel, Michael Monday, said in the WARN notice provided to the North Carolina Department of Commerce. “Vehicle volumes are trending downward, exacerbated by Covid-19 while the introduction of new technology from non-traditional suppliers is forcing Tier 1s to review their operations to increase competitiveness.”

To compete, the firm needs to stay ahead of those trends, Monday said in the notice.

“As part of Marelli’s ongoing strategy to strengthen its market position, we will relocate our US-based powertrain manufacturing operations to Saltillo, Mexico,” he adds. “This move will increase efficiency, enabling the company to become more cost competitive while meeting customer demand.”

The plant has been an institution in Sanford for more than 40 years. Inaugurated in 1976, the plant produces automotive powertrain technologies.

Over the decades, the plant evolved from producing carburetors to modern powertrain systems, including intake manifolds and engine control systems for automobiles, motorcycles, power sports and industrial engines.

Marelli didn’t immediately return a request to comment on the situation.

Source: The Business Journals

(https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2020/12/07/marelli-sanford-close-layoffs-auto-parts-jobs.html)

The first brick-and-mortar Ikea store in Mexico is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2021 in Mexico City, although the company’s recently opened online site is already busy from unexpected demand.

“We are excited to open Ikea in Mexico only three years after the decision was made to enter the Mexican market, especially under the tough Covid-19 conditions in Mexico City,” said Ikea Mexico retail country manager Malcolm Pruys in a press release. “It took significant collaboration and support across the Ikano Group and the retail business to make this possible. We now look forward to opening the first store early next year,”

Ikano Group is a corporation that operates franchised Ikea stores in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. A conglomerate with businesses across several industry sectors, it announced in August that it plans to build a 100,000-square-meter manufacturing plant in Ramos Arispe, Coahuila, for mattresses and sofas to be sold in North American Ikea stores.

Ikea store manager Annie Chandler told the newspaper El Financiero that the new physical store will be an anchor in the Encuentro Oceania mall, currently under construction in a former industrial zone in the Moctezuma Section 2 neighborhood in Venustiano Carranza.

Originally, the brick-and-mortar store was meant to open before the online one, but Covid-related issues forced the company to open the online site first. The website opened with a soft launch with no publicity as the company wanted to get to know the Mexican market and work out long-term details like the kind of vehicles it would use in its delivery fleet.

But customers found the site anyway. Within two days, the company was overwhelmed with orders from all over Mexico.

“We launched in a very discreet manner because we hoped to grow slowly,” Pruys told Forbes México. “There was a 1000% more demand than predicted, for which we were not prepared.”

The online site is currently dealing with the unexpected avalanche of orders with only about 150 customer service employees. The website warns customers that deliveries could be delayed up to 15 days.

Meanwhile, plans proceed slowly but surely to install the brick-and-mortar store in the Encuentro Oceania mall. The shopping center, which will have 85,000 square meters of commercial space available, will contain green spaces and will involve the renovation of the Romero Rubio Metro station and sidewalks in the neighborhood, said Galo Rosello, legal director for Pulso Immobiliario, the development company building the over 500-million-peso (US $25-million) project.

According to the Ikea website, the brick-and-mortar store is expected to create around 350 direct jobs and more than 1,000 indirect ones.

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum recently announced that the mall will also host one of the 300 Pilares community centers she plans to open by 2021 to revitalize community life and reduce crime.

Source: Mexico News Daily

(https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/ikea-plans-to-open-its-mexico-city-store-early-next-year/)

La Asociación de empresas Manufactureras de Exportación de San Luis Potosí A.C. (index San Luis Potosí) será representada durante los próximos dos años por el nuevo presidente Jesús Octaviano Aguirre, quien seguirá trabajando para impulsar a las compañías maquiladoras e industria manufacturera y servicios de exportación de la entidad.

“Han hecho muy buen trabajo y yo vengo a tomar un gran reto, lo que vengo a aportar es la experiencia y conocimiento que tengo en el sector, ser un enlace y representar al gremio, así como, las relaciones que ha logrado a nivel industria, gobierno, tanto local, como nacional e internacional”, compartió.

Actualmente, index San Luis Potosí está conformada por más de 30 empresas manufactureras de exportación de talla mundial y cuentan con cerca de 15 alianzas estratégicas con diferentes instituciones y empresas de servicio del sector manufacturero de exportación, así como, convenios de colaboración con gobierno.

“Identificaremos entre todo el equipo cuáles son las oportunidades que tenemos y nos enfocaremos en eso, la intención no es querer hacer algo que cueste mucho esfuerzo y tenga poco resultado, realmente es ser objetivos en lo que se puede lograr, con sus limitaciones y panoramas mundiales, no es el momento más fácil para crecer, pero la asociación tiene oportunidad de hacerlo ante las adversidades, sobre todo, porque somos un porta voz del sector”, aseveró el presidente.

Como parte de los impulsos al sector IMMEX en la entidad, el presidente señaló que es de suma importancia la actualización constante y eventos de capacitación, mismos que han destacado a index San Luis Potosí como el principal proveedor especializado en el programa.

“Lo que queremos primordialmente es crecer el número de socios en un 15% en los próximos dos años y también aumentar los servicios que damos como seminarios, capacitación y entrenamiento”, dijo el ingeniero.

Asimismo, darán seguimiento a proyectos y programas que faciliten la actividad de las empresas y a los acuerdos que se promueven con el propósito de encontrar posibles soluciones a problemas específicos de los socios.

Fuente: México Industry

(https://mexicoindustry.com/noticia/jesus-octaviano-aguirre-nuevo-presidente-de-index-san-luis-potosi)

Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O said on Thursday it has invested $100 million in opening new warehouses in Mexico, including its first shipping centers outside the populous capital area, in a bid to offer faster deliveries.

The new sites include two so-called fulfillment centers – one near the northern city of Monterrey and another near the central city of Guadalajara – as well as a support building in the State of Mexico, just outside Mexico City.

Amazon also opened 12 delivery stations, bringing its total to 27 across the country, it said.

“The construction of a solid infrastructure network allows the company to stay closer than ever to clients, and thanks to that, it’s possible to offer fast deliveries,” Amazon said in a statement.

Monterrey and Guadalajara are the two biggest metropolitan zones of the country after the sprawling Mexico City area.

The new facilities represent 69,000 square meters (742,710 sq ft) altogether and create 1,500 direct and indirect jobs, Amazon said.

Amazon in total now runs five fulfillment centers, two support buildings and two classification centers in Mexico, where it launched its marketplace in 2015.

Enrique Alfaro, the governor of Jalisco state that is home to Guadalajara, said the new local warehouse would help more small and medium sized businesses ship their products faster and at lower costs.

Amazon is also striving to make inroads in Brazil, where it recently opened its fifth and biggest fulfillment center in the country, with 100,000 square meters (1,076,391 sq ft).

In both countries, which are the biggest economies in Latin America, Amazon is vying with local rivals for shopper loyalty, despite its ranking as the world’s biggest online retailer.

Source: Reuters

(https://es.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-mexico/amazon-announces-100-million-logistics-investment-in-mexico-idUSKBN2770G2)

The innovation firm Siemens will invest US$14 million in Mexico between 2020 and 2021, mainly focused on innovation and development, Alejandro Preinfalk, president and CEO of the firm in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean said in a statement.

Preinfalk stressed that at least a third of said investment will be allocated for research, since Mexico has important programs regarding motors and electrical systems.

“We are also working on automation and digitization systems, as well as manufacturing systems in the cloud,” he said.

For his part, Marco Cosío, vice president of Siemens’ Smart Infrestructure division for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, stressed that they will also expand their production capacity in Mexico, adding new product assembly lines that are made outside North America.

“It is to increase the capacity in switches, also to have more digital lines thinking of bringing products that are made abroad (…), for that reason we are expanding our hiring of personnel,” said the manager, noting that 1,500 people have already added in four months.

Cosío added that by 2030 they will be neutral in carbon emissions worldwide; “In Mexico these measures are already being taken, one of them is energy efficiency.”

Source: MexicoNow, El Financiero

(https://mexico-now.com/siemens-will-invest-us14-million-in-mexico/)