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FACT: there are 29 aerospace industry firms operating in the City of Tijuana, Baja California.

FACT: based on a company survey of each of those 29 firms, Crossborder Group found average Q2-2011 employment totaling 7,313 workers, making Tijuana the Mexican city with the largest number of aerospace cluster employees within 400 miles of the US-Mexico border.

These are just two of the many findings in a recent aerospace industry white paper developed by Crossborder Group for the City of Tijuana Economic Development Corporation (DEITAC) and released at this year’s Paris Air Show by DEITAC and Baja California business and economic leaders. As with most of Crossborder’s business projects, the research team reaches out to regional leaders within an industry: in this case, getting feedback and data from aerospace company representatives at Eaton, Zodiac, Parker, Suntron, and others currently operating in Tijuana.

While confirming data about an industry in Mexico can often take dozens (or hundreds!) of phone calls, emails and interviews with companies, agencies, and trade organizations, Crossborder Group rose the challenge and recently completed the report: ”For High Altitude Profits, Companies Land in Tijuana“. This report elevates Crossborder Group’s growing portfolio of technology and industry reports that underscore the great potential that exists to grow tech industries that leverage the strengths of North America’s NAFTA partners: the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.

Download this report here and contact us at answers[at]crossborderbusiness[dot]com if you have any questions, or need more information about manufacturing and business opportunities in Mexico, Costa Rica, and the NAFTA/CAFTA marketplace.

Download: PDF briefing on 2010 Mexico maquiladora/IMMEX trends

Crossborder Group has just completed an analysis of the most-recent INEGI data for Mexico’s maquiladora/IMMEX industry — some findings of which are presented at right in our CrossborderInforma briefing (download here, or by clicking on the image [PDF, 175kb]). Beyond the fact that Mexico’s IMMEX companies are continuing their rebound from the 2008-2009 recession — ending 2010 with a respectable 1.81 million employees (9.1% growth year-over-year compared to December 2009) — several other findings stand out:

• Border states captured only 63% of the nearly 165,000 jobs created in the maquiladora/IMMEX sectors in 2010;
• Nuevo León has surpassed Baja California for second-place in terms of total IMMEX employees (despite the negative security image, Chihuahua remains in first-place); and…
• Northwest Mexico states’ IMMEX employment grow at a significantly slower rate than many Northeast and Central states. For example, in 2010, IMMEX employment grew far more quickly in Querétaro (+14.7%), Edo México (+14.5%), Coahuila (+14.2%), San Luis Potosí (+13.5%), Nuevo León (+13.3%) and Guanajuato (+12.6%) compared to maquiladora powerhouses Chihuahua (+5.5%) or Baja California (+6.0%) — or key states like Jalisco (+4.4%) or Sonora (+8.4%).

Do these shifts in IMMEX industry growth reflect underlying changes in the competitive offerings of these States, or are they temporary fluctuations caused by a variety of factors? Download our one-page CrossborderInforma briefing above for more details and our initial thoughts — and feel free to contact Crossborder as we continue to analyze Mexico’s manufacturing regions and their industrial opportunities.

GoogleTrends - Mexico: "Super Bowl"

base of fans in Mexico and Latin America (read our Feb. 2010 article here). With Green Bay ahead in the second-quarter, we thought we’d sip our cervezas, munch on some delicious guacamole (using aguacates de Michoacán), and check out GoogleTrends again — here are the results:

• Like 2010, there’s a peak in Google searches in Mexico for “super bowl” around one-week before the game;

• Also like in 2010, searches appear to be concentrated in a few key States — this time, with Chihuahua leading, followed by Baja California, Nuevo León, DF, and Jalisco;

• Key cities: this year, the Monterrey Metro region surged ahead (#1 San Nicholas de la Garza, and #4 Monterrey), knocking out Tijuana (which dropped to #3), and a surprising showing of #2 Chihuahua (with DF and Guadalajara trailing…).

Notably, again, most of the searches coming from Mexico were done in English-language versions of Google — underscoring the high-level of English language capabilities in these cities, as well as their connections (both economically, and via expats) to the United States.

Now…back to the game (and that bottle of tequila).

Crossborder's At-border Survey team in Mexico

Well, today we’re happy to announce a new Quarterly, at-border survey service –pre-scheduled times each quarter to ask 4 to 8 of your questions at very affordable prices (check out our Quarterly Omnibus Survey flyer in PDF, here or below).  This at-border survey service uses trained, bilingual Crossborder staff with PDAs, and can cover the entire California-Mexico border (San Ysidro, Otay Mesa, Tecate, Calexico, Calexico East and Andrade — with other POEs optional).

Got questions you want to ask border crossers?  Download our CrossborderSurveys Quarterly Omnibus overview — and contact us today about our Spring and Summer 2011 survey sessions (multi-season discounts available!). We can help you answer questions about the hundreds of thousands of border crossers people that make up the US-Mexico border economy!

Download the 2011 CrossborderSurveys Quarterly Omnibus Overview

Questions?  Email us at Answers[at]CrossborderBusiness[dot]com.

Download: PDF CrossborderInforma Brief on Crossborder Shoppers

Crossborder Group has released initial findings from their December 2010 (Winter Quarter) at-border surveys, conducted among nearly 1,000, randomly-selected northbound car, SENTRI, and pedestrian travelers at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa Ports of Entry.  These results (download PDF at right) highlight nearly 800 responses from Mexico-residing visitors into San Diego and their Christmas Holiday purchases in San Diego County.

“Since 2003 we’ve been surveying border crossers, and have repeatedly asked Mexican shoppers to estimate their household expenditures on Christmas gifts purchased in San Diego,” explains Kenn Morris, President of California-based Crossborder Group and it’s Mexico subsidiary, Crossborder NS, S de RL de CV.  “This last Holiday season, Baja California visitors estimated that they’d spent $536 dollars per household on Christmas gifts purchased in San Diego — that’s an enormous and positive economic impact that the public should know about.”Using census data and visa information collected in the Tijuana metropolitan area in previous Crossborder Group surveys, Crossborder estimates that the economic benefits to San Diego from crossborder holiday purchases alone are at least $76M to $101 million dollars in direct expenditures. “And this doesn’t include crossborder non-holiday daily expenditures throughout the year, which Mexican-residing visitors consistently estimate as averaging well over $100 per trip,” notes Morris.

NOTE: Download the CrossborderInforma Holiday Shopper Briefing here, or click on the image above. Additional border survey results will be released at Crossborder Group’s website and here at our blog.

Got Questions About Crossborder Visitors? Download our one-page At-Border Survey overview below to learn how you can add your questions to Spring, Summer, or other Quarters — or call or email Crossborder at 1-888-492-6733, or at Answers[at]CrossborderBusiness[dot]com today.

Download our CrossborderSurveys overview in PDF, below:

2011 CrossborderSurveys Quarterly Omnibus Overview

Got a Crossborder Question?  We can help.

Download our At-Border Survey Omnibus Overview Today.

Possible Return of the Super Peso in 2011?

As seen in the graph at right (developed by Crossborder Group and based on historic Banco de México peso exchange rate data [showing the official rate to resolve currency obligations]), the peso was last at these levels in early-October, 2008, during a time in which the peso depreciated by 20-30% from 10 pesos per US$1.

A variety of factors appear to be creating this peso-strengthening trend:  a still-slow U.S. economic recovery, concerns about certain European markets (and the stability of the Euro), and the contrasting relative fiscal/economic stability in Mexico.  In fact, recent efforts by the Calderon Administration to increase foreign reserves to over US$113 billion and secure a US$73 billion two-year line of credit from the IMF, while maintaining Government debt to just over 2% of GDP, will likely contribute to some continued strengthening of the peso for at least the first half of 2011.

A new Super Peso could lead to increasing costs for international visitors to Mexico, as well as a higher cost for production in the foreign-dominated IMMEX/maquiladora industry — potentially undermining some of Mexico’s competitive strength internationally.  Crossborder Group will continue to track this issue throughout 2011, and can provide insights into potential impacts on your market or industry — contact us at answers[at]crossborderbusiness.com for more information.

Tijuana Employment by Sectors - Data by Crossborder Group

While the print edition included two graphics (including some data we provided on the number of IMMEX/maquiladora firms in major Mexican cities), the online edition included the graph at right — which shows approximate employment numbers for various tech clusters in Tijuana based on research our team did over the last few months (including medical devices, aerospace, and others).

One piece of new information (which didn’t really get covered in the article) was our estimate of Call Center employment in Tijuana.  This is an emerging industry not just in Tijuana, but other parts of Mexico as well — and one that has much potential for growth (particularly given the bilingual nature of the US-Mexico border States). Look for more research from Crossborder Group on this topic in the coming months….

US-Mexico Border & Tijuana's Airport (TIJ)

For those keeping up on border infrastructure issues in the California-Baja California region, some quiet progress has been happening that could dramatically shape the future of the binational sister cities of Tijuana and San Diego.  On July 23, the U.S. State Department issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) [link] for Otay-Tijuana Venture, LLC’s proposed crossborder airport terminal — followed even more quickly than some (including ourselves) could imagine with the issuance on August 4 (only hours ago, as of this writing) by Secretary of State Clinton of the Presidential Permit required to authorize moving forward on the project [link to announcement].

While many may not be familiar with this project, the concept has been discussed at various governmental levels (and various levels of interest) since at least 1991 — the year that Mexico’s Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares (ASA) proposed an expansion of Tijuana’s International Airport (TIJ) that included two runways and a US terminal in Otay Mesa. More recently, a local economic development organization, the South County Economic Development Council (SCEDC), has championed the concept, resulting in a positive preliminary study in 2007-2008 by the San Diego Airport Authority. Our own firm, in fact, included questions about the crossborder terminal concept in our own at-border surveys for several years — a few results of which are presented at bottom — finding that over one-third of San Diego residents that crossed the border had flown out of TIJ at least once within the last year.But now it’s time to turn the data and the concepts into a reality — and time to get the regional leadership not just of San Diego and Tijuana on-board (a goal that’s hard enough), but civic leadership in our respective State and Federal capitals, as well.

Before the “anti-terminal” activists start coalescing (which, we believe, they will), let’s first imagine how such a Crossborder Terminal might positively impact the Greater San Diego-Tijuana Metro Region if it is truly embraced by our regional leadership. Not only could it physically represent the kind of mature, 21st Century crossborder relationship that many other regions along the US-Mexico border and around the world would envy (since there are only two other examples of crossborder terminals we are aware of in the world), but what may be the region’s newest, privately-funded border crossing could also help both sides of our regional border to attract investment, development, and new connections for global tourism.

747 at Tijuana International Airport (TIJ) on 9/11/2001

It also (as we’ve opined before) will enhance regional airport security by (de facto) profoundly connecting operations at Tijuana’s Airport with US Federal authorities (immigration and customs) — a situation that doesn’t exist under Tijuana’s existing situation. This doesn’t mean that US authorities will necessarily have any additional authority in sovereign Mexican territory (or vice versa) — but let us hope that US- and Mexico-based agencies use the opportunity to share information for increased security throughout the entire binational community.

One can already imagine the anti-terminal arguments that we’ll hear:  “What about security?”, “Won’t this increase illegal immigration?”, etc. What we won’t hear — unless we start working now — are the arguments not only in favor of making this crossborder terminal a reality, but the vision of how this important piece of infrastructure could further enhance this Mega-Region’s long-term global connectivity, could provide a true centerpiece to the broader binational US-Mexico community, and give yet one more tool to help the San Diego-Tijuana Metro Region out-compete other advancing, high-tech regions in North America — and the world.  That’s our two-pesos.

Let us know what you think – and feel free to download some past at-border survey results about binational air travel in our PDF below:

Downloadable PDF: Crossborder's At-Border Survey Data

Mexico Automotive Brief - Download PDF Here

Mexico’s automotive sector experienced a steep decline in production and investment in 2009 due to the global economic downturn.  In fact, by January of 2009, production of cars and light trucks had fallen to less than half of January 2008′s levels — a trend which continued throughout most of 2009.  However, several major OEM’s have recently announced plans for production or supplier expansions in Mexico over next few years.

Research and analysis conducted by Crossborder Group (in PDF at right) shows that – despite the negative reports about foreign investment in Mexico — investors have actually brought more than US$15.7 billion in auto industry investments to Mexico between 2000-2009 (often in IMMEX / maquiladora operations).

“It’s clear after the 2009 crisis that automotive manufacturers are already expanding their Mexico-based operations,” notes Crossborder Group’s President, Kenn Morris, “which in turn is creating new opportunities for automotive suppliers in North America, particularly those with lower-cost manufacturing facilities in Mexico.”

More details are available in our downloadable, 1-page CrossborderInsights brief here (PDF): 1007-CInsights-Mexico-Auto-Industry-Races-sec

If you would like to be notified about our more-extensive report regarding the Automotive Industry in Mexico, please use the contact form below this posting — or call us at 1-888-4XBORDER.