Concern For Nogales Manufacturing Industry

NOGALES, SONORA, MX – Nogales industry executives are concerned for the future of the manufacturing industry in Mexico, due to the current Covid-19 pandemic.

Genaro Vecerra Álvarez, executive director of Index Nogales, said he was expecting a complementary declaration from the Government of the State of Sonora before the extension of the healthy distance period campaign decreed by the federal government.

“What I can say is that it leaves us with a lot to do with the industry; fortunately, the number of infections in Nogales seems to be controlled”, he said.

Hipólito Sedano Ruiz, national vice president of the North Pacific Region of Canacintra, observes with concern the challenges facing the industry for exportation and national use in Mexico.

“As we mentioned, this was going to extend from a health emergency to a health contingency and we can assume that the cost is very likely not going to be assumed by the government, but instead passed on to the businessmen”, he warned.

Border Factories

In Nogales, around 30 thousand workers in the maquiladora industry have been sent home and 15 thousand more continue working in companies considered “essential’’ during Covid-19 pandemic.

The determination of closing industries during Covid-19, obeys that the Mexican federal government decreed that as a Coronavirus prevention measure, all companies and establishments with non-essential functions should close and send their staff home.

Until this week, 30 companies have closed completely and the rest, around 90 manufacturing plants, continue to operate partially with 15,000 workers.

Nogales houses 116 export manufacturing industries, which directly generate around 45 thousand jobs.

Added to the national industry, the generation of jobs exceeds the 50 thousand jobs of the approximately 70 thousand that the Mexican Social Security Institute has registered.