The new Mexican government began a process not seen in the previous administration (2018-2024) of meeting with companies. Now, officials from the Ministry of Economy met with executives from the American company Whirlpool.
“Working meeting with Whirlpool Mexico management to strengthen the company's commitment to the country,” the Undersecretary of Industry and Commerce, Javier Vidal Lerenas, posted on his personal account on “X” (formerly Twitter).
The meeting was organized a little over a month after the new government of President Claudia Sheinbaum (2024-2030) began, who assumed the presidency of the Republic on October 1.
Whirlpool is concluding an expansion process that began in 2023 in Mexico with an investment of $200 million. The company has three large production complexes in Apodaca, Nuevo León to manufacture washing machine products and components; in the central city of Celaya, Guanajuato, it produces stoves, refrigerators and washing machines, and Whirlpool's most modern plant is in the northern city of Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila, where it manufactures side-by-side refrigerators for all of America.
The meeting with a company from the USMCA zone takes place in the context that the German company BSH Home Appliance, a subsidiary of Grupo Bosch, recently inaugurated its first plant for the manufacture of 300,000 refrigerators a year in Mexico for the export market with $260 million in the northern city of Salinas Victoria, Nuevo León.
In addition, the Chinese manufacturer of household appliances and electronic products, Hisense Group, recently said that it seeks to turn Mexico into one of its largest production centers (after China) of refrigerators for export to the entire American continent with an investment of $250 million in its industrial complex in Salinas Victoria.
In addition, the new Mexican government is in the process of seeking companies to substitute part of its inputs for production. In the case of Whirlpool, 20 percent of its production inputs is purchased outside the USMCA region.
According to the consulting firm American Industries, the home appliance industry in Mexico with companies such as Whirlpool, Electrolux and LG, among others, will reach a market of $19.0 billion in 2029.