Short on trucks, GM gears up in Mexico
With its employee-pricing sale over, General Motors Corp. is turning to its Mexican factories to replenish the stocks of American auto dealers.
“We’re short on trucks. Dealers don’t have them in all the colors and with all the options that people want,” said Gilbert Duhn, a customs manager for the company. “We’ve started building more trucks in Mexico.”
Such a move wouldn’t be possible without the North American Free Trade Agreement, Duhn said during a speech at the NAFTA vs. Global Competition conference here, which ended Friday. The two-day event was hosted by the Phoenix-based Border Trade Alliance.
Before NAFTA was enacted in 1994, GM made the El Camino in Mexico City, but the company stopped production there because of 25 percent tariffs imposed on cars exported for sale in the United States, Duhn said. Now, GM operates four manufacturing centers in Mexico.
Its plant in Silao started making the Chevrolet Silverado and the GMC Sierra this month in an effort to match American demand for the vehicles. The plant normally makes only sport utility vehicles and the Chevrolet Avalanche, but a softer market for SUVs and stronger demand for full-size pickups is changing the production mix there.
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U.S. rules stalling trucks from Mexico
The United States government is still negotiating safety requirements for Mexican trucks 18 months after the Supreme Court gave the green light for the trucks to drive on U.S. roads.
In the meantime, Mexican trucks are taking better and better care of their rigs, data from the U.S. Department of Transportation showed.
The number of trucks put "out of service" by border inspectors has been decreasing steadily to 21.5 percent in 2004, Ruben Torres, Department of Transportation field supervisor, said at the Maquila Industry conference in El Paso last week. The truckers are "doing their part to
Mexico cenbank to keep monetary 'short' for now
Mexico has no plans to abandon the money market 'short' it once used to fix monetary policy even though it now sets interest rates more directly, central bank governor Guillermo Ortiz said on Thursday.
"We now have two (instruments), an interest rate floor and the short," Ortiz said after a speech in Mexico City. "We're keeping the short hidden away in a little box for now, in case we need it."
For years, the central bank controlled monetary policy by tweaking the short, a restriction on the amount of overnight lending to banks that
UPDATE 1-Mexico's central bank holds monetary policy steady
Mexico's central bank held monetary policy steady on Friday, pausing in its current loosening cycle as expected, despite record low inflation and a weak economy.
The central bank said in its twice-monthly policy review it was keeping its money market "short" steady at 79 million pesos a day. The short is one of the Banco de Mexico's main monetary policy tools.
A decrease in the short increases overnight lending to banks and tends to push interest rates lower, which encourages borrowing to stimulate economic growth.
At its last policy review on Aug. 26, Mexico's central
Texas residents flee Rita to Mexico crime city
Thousands of jittery Texas residents piled into cars, trucks and buses and fled south of the Rio Grande on Friday, risking refuge in Mexico's most violent city rather than face Hurricane Rita's wrath.
Texans and Mexican migrant workers piled across bridges to Nuevo Laredo, from Laredo Texas, throughout the morning, some hauling cherished family valuables in pickup trucks, others escaping with little more than their passports.
"We didn't expect to get to Mexico. ... We just brought our clothes and some food and left everything else at home," Maria Leblanc of Houston said as she
In Mexico, Taking Fizz Out of the Cola Giants
The founders of the upstart cola maker Ajegroup know a thing or two about guerrilla marketing.
When Shining Path rebels took to hijacking Coca-Cola Co. trucks in the late 1980s during Peru's civil war, the Ananos family started peddling its own line of soft drinks in recycled beer bottles to meet local demand. Today the company controls more than one-fifth of the cola market in Peru.
Ajegroup is still taking potshots at Coke, but the battle has shifted north to Mexico, where the Peruvians are once again making gains through unorthodox methods. In a
Mexico lends a hand in Katrina relief
Mexico, long on the receiving end of U.S. disaster relief, is sending a hurricane aid convoy to help its larger, richer and more powerful northern neighbor.
A Mexican army convoy is heading for Houston, Texas, carrying water treatment plants, mobile kitchens and supplies to feed victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The convoy has "a very high symbolic content," said Javier Oliva, a political scientist at Mexico's National Autonomous University. "This is a very sensitive subject, for historic and political reasons."
Large Mexican flags were taped to many of the 35 olive-green Mexican army trucks and tractor trailers as
Mexico storm recovery help heads to New Orleans
A Mexican warship and a convoy of army trucks headed to the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday carrying rescue vehicles, clean water, troops and emergency workers to help with the recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
A convoy of 25 military trucks with hundreds of troops and civilian workers, equipment and supplies left on Tuesday and was expected to cross the border the following day, with a second convoy to follow on Wednesday.
Mexican newspapers on Tuesday hailed the peaceful deployment of troops on U.S. soil as unprecedented.
Asked about the presence of Mexican troops on U.S.
UPDATE 2-Mexico central bank holds interest rates steady
Mexico's central bank held interest rates steady on Friday, although it is widely expected to push them lower later this month to help a struggling economy.
With manufacturing output weak, the central bank began pushing rates lower in August and markets expect further cuts ahead, but analysts differ over whether policy-makers will pause in the easing cycle as the race for July 2006 elections heats up.
The bank said in its twice-monthly policy review on Friday it was keeping its money market "short" steady at 79 million pesos a day and made no change
UPDATE 1-Mexico 28-day T-bill yield falls to 9.36 pct
The yield on Mexico's benchmark 28-day Cetes, or T-bills, shed 6 basis points to 9.36 percent on Tuesday, as investors bet the central bank will push down its key interest rate over the next few months.
Longer-term rates also fell at the central bank auction.
The decline in short-term interest rates was slightly bigger than market expectations. A Reuters survey of Cetes dealers had forecast the rate on the benchmark one-month paper would edge down 3 basis points to 9.39 percent.
Following signs of a strong improvement in inflation, Mexico's central bank pushed interest rates
NFL to Make Short-Lived Visit to Mexico
Don't expect the NFL to stick around Mexico very long after Sunday's game between the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers, the first regular-season game played outside the United States.
NFL Mexico, which oversees the sport in this country, says it has no plans to push for a team any time soon. It appears content to follow the lead of the NBA and major league baseball, which played games that counted in Mexico in years past but haven't seriously considered sanctioning Mexican franchises.
"A franchise in Mexico, it's not a priority for the short
