Mexican Automotive Industry Keeps Rolling After Dean

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) -- Hurricane Dean slammed into Mexico for a second time in two days, slamming the eastern state of Veracruz with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph. The storm was much weaker than the Category 5 storm with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph which roared into the Caribbean and crashed into the Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday morning.

In its path was the Port of Veracruz, Mexico's major automobile shipping and receiving port. More than 500,000 vehicles moved in and out through the port in 2006, including vehicles from Volkswagen, Chrysler, Ford, Nissan, Seat, Peugeot, BMW, General Motors, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, Land Rover, Fiat, Toyota, Volvo, Audi and Jaguar. Mexico produced 1.37 million cars and 672,000 trucks in 2006.

Major assembly plants located in the area are Volkswagen in Puebla, Nissan in Morelos, BMW in Toluca and Daimler Chrysler, Ford Motor Company and Volvo Buses in Mexico. Volkswagen’s plant is the closest to the area 168 miles from Veracruz. None of the plants experienced any major damage or disruptions due to lack of parts. Most of the plants had components to last several days in anticipation of any temporary unavailability of parts. Volkswagen had a ship full of a week’s supply of engines, gear boxes and other components from Germany come in over the weekend prior to the storm hitting.

The port of Veracruz closed on Tuesday night in anticipation of Hurricane Dean. It was believed that the port would not reopen until Friday, August 24, 2007, but the port reopened early on Thursday morning, with a ship carrying 852 Chrysler brand vehicles and 500 Nissan vehicles aboard. The ship was supposed to have left on Tuesday, but was unable to do so. The shipping delay seems to have been the only casualty due to the storm.

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