French automotive supplier Novares (Paris; www.novaresteam.com) has celebrated the official start-up of its sixth plant in Mexico. The USD 1.75 mn (EUR 1.65 mn) production facility in Santa Ana, near the US border, is to focus primarily on the production of plastic piping for cooling vehicle batteries, which sets it apart from its five sister plants in the country. In addition, it will produce injection-moulded oil separators and emission control systems for internal combustion engines.

At the 8,000 m² site, Novares is also consolidating manufacturing from its previous production facility in Santa Ana and an American plant in Richmond, Wisconsin.

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“This is a significant investment by Novares in our Mexican production facilities, designed to bring this activity under one roof and concentrate our expertise in one location, optimizing costs and benefits for our customers,” said Pierre Boulet, CEO of Novares.

The 400 jobs created at the site brings the supplier’s workforce in Mexico to almost 1,600 at its plants, which include three in Chihuahua and facilities in the southern cities of Puebla and Silao.

The country’s automotive industry continues to make progress in its post-pandemic recovery. In the first quarter of 2022, automakers managed to increase the total number of cars produced, but domestic sales and foreign shipments fell. In the number of cars assembled in the period rose to more than 849,000 from total production of around 821,000 in the year-earlier period, according the Mexican Automotive Industry Association (AMIA; www.amia.com.mx). This is an increase of 3.4% year-over-year.

Although more vehicles were assembled, sales failed to follow the same path domestically and abroad. During the January-March period, nearly 681,000 cars were shipped abroad versus more than 693,000 in Q1 2020, indicating a contraction of 1.82%.