Opportunities And Challenges For Suppliers In Mexico

Last week the Original Equipment Suppliers Association (OESA) hosted an event entitled "Supplier Opportunities and Challenges in Mexico" that I attended. It was a great program as always by OESA, and I wanted to share some of the highlights that I took away from it.

First of all, nearly every automotive manufacturer who has operations in Mexico has aggressive plans underway to expand that production. And according to a recent OESA survey of suppliers, 69% of the respondents stated that they planned to expand their business in Mexico in the next 18 months. This is consistent with what we were seeing at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), where I served as COO for 18 months before returning to Foley & Lardner in June. In November 2013, the MEDC took about 15 suppliers down to central Mexico (primarily Queretaro), principally tier two and tier three suppliers, to help those companies expand their export sales to Mexico and create new relationships with