“Sister Port” Agreement with Port of New Bedford and Port of Tuxpan

Recently, the Port of New Bedford in Massachusetts, the leading fishing port in the United States, signed a “sister port” agreement with the Port of Tuxpan in Veracruz, Mexico in order to transform the city of Tuxpan into a hub for imports and exports. The Port of Tuxpan is already an important international freight services location for shipping companies and local companies. The “sister port” is hoped to help spur the creation of employment opportunities for many individuals and expand the economic ties between Mexican markets and specifically Massachusetts based businesses. For more Economy and Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.

Endeavour Silver’s Q2 production surges by 22 percent

Vancouver-based company Endeavour Silver Corp reports the production of one million ounces of silver and 7,695 ounces of gold this quarter. This shows a 22 percent increase in silver output and a 59 percent increase in gold output. The company expects to meet its full-year production targets of 4.3 million ounces of silver and 26,000 ounces of gold. Despite a 24 percent decrease in the price of silver, the company's revenue rose 11 percent to $40.4 million due to the rise in production. As well as owning and operating the Guanacevi and Guanajuato mines in Mexico, Endeavor Silver Corp announced earlier this year a $250 million deal to buy AuRico Gold Inc's El Cubo silver-gold mine in Mexico. For more Economy and Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.

SilverCrest Mines says Santa Elena mine expansion on track for La Joya by Q4

SilverCrest Mines, a Mexican precious metals producer, has reaffirmed the start date for the Santa Elena mine expansion which plans to double its metal production. Detailed engineering for the facility should reach completion by the first quarter of 2013. SilverCrest stated its target to begin engineering by January 2014 with an initial production rate of 1,000 tonnes per day. For more Economy and Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.

Investment in Mexico Surpasses Brazil

Global investment interest and economic growth has switched its focus towards Mexico and away from Brazil in the last year. This is partly in due to Mexico’s strong economic ties to the United States. While Brazil finds itself closely involved with China, Mexico has continued to foster its economic relations with their neighboring United States. Portfolio investment in Mexico is on the rise and overall, Mexico’s economy is growing at a higher rate than anywhere else in Latin America. The gross fixed investment in Mexico rose 1.9 percent in April from March. For more Economy and Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.

Leading Gas Supplier, Air Liquide Invests in Mexico

Air Liquide is a prominent French industrial gas supplier, providing services in the medical, electronic, and chemical worlds. Air Liquide is investing in the construction of a new Air Separation Unit (ASU) and a Steam Methane Reformer (SMR) in Pesquería, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Air Liquide’s decision to invest in Mexico came from the encouraging geographical location the country holds, as well as their emergent economic situation. Air Liquide has plans to supply principal steel manufactures like Ternium and Tenigal with nitrogen and hydrogen provisions in both gas and liquid forms. For more Economy and Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.

Altos Hornos de Mexico (AHMSA)’s New Business Ventures in Mexico

The Mexican steelmaker company, Altos Hornos de Mexico (AHMSA) and its Minera del Norte unit have started to develop new projects in the state of Coahuila in Mexico. The ventures are anticipated to cost around $980 million and spur the creation of more than 3,000 jobs in different subdivisions of the economy. Altos Hornos de Mexico is Mexico’s leading steelmaker, with a production capacity of around 3 million tons a year of steel. For more Business news on Mexico go to MexicoToday.Org.

Job Growth in Mexico's Maquila Sector

Although it's reported that 6 maquilas in Mexico have closed, the Mexican Statistics Agency (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, Geografia e Informatica or INEGI) has reported that they've created over 1,000 new jobs in the Ciudad Juarez area, where many of the maquila industry is located.

Source: Maquila Portal

The Boom of the Mexican State

In 2010, contrary to all predictions, the Mexican economy grew by 5.5% — the fastest rate in a decade and well above the usual growth rates.

In the U.S., sociologists are puzzled over the paradox of falling crime rates in an era of high unemployment and economic uncertainty. The Mexican paradox appears to be the reverse.

These are a few of the positive data points for Mexico:

1) The Mexican peso grew stronger against the dollar.

2) The Mexican inflation rate was essentially flat.

3) Foreign reserves in Mexico grew to $113 billion.

4) 22 million tourists visited the country.

5) Trade with the U.S. reached all-time highs of almost $400 billion.

6) The maquiladora industries added some 20,000 jobs in Ciudad Juarez.

7) The percentage of the population living below the poverty line declined to 47.4% in 2008 (the last year for which the World Bank has data) from 63.7% a decade earlier.

8) Literacy rates started to surpass the 90th percentile.

9) Life expectancy continues to rise to near-First World levels.

10) Foreign investment in Mexico keeps growing to surpass each previous year's level and is expected to reach high growth rates in the future.


Source: The WSJ online

Bancomer Selects Hypercom for Mobile-Payment System

From the Paypers:

Mexico-based financial institution BBVA Bancomer has selected payment technology company Hypercom to deploy it's 10,000 Optimum M4230 mobile payment systems to its merchant customers.

Hypercom’s services now fulfill the electronic transfer needs of banks and other financial institutions like processors, retailers, merchants, as well as users in the transportation, petroleum, healthcare, prepaid and self-service.

What do you think is the future of mobile banking and who will be the leaders of this new business?

PayPal and Digital River Expand Online Payment Service Agreement in Mexico and Brazil

Now Mexico and Brazil have greater access to PayPal online payment services in a deal with US e-commerce services developer Digital River. The system now supports local online payment processing in Brazil and Mexico.

Digital River World Payments service provides service options such as checkout page optimization, fraud detection, services to manage currency risk and business intelligence tools, among others. The payment service is available in more than 190 countries and supports over 170 transaction and display currencies.

Click here for the full story.

Have you used this service in Mexico or Brazil? How would you rate the improvement?

Afores (Pension Funds) Now Allow Outside Managers

The Mexican pension fund system is going through a revolution, paving the way for greater opportunities for asset managers.

In March 2011, Consar, the Mexican pensions regulator, released a directive that allows pension schemes (Afores) to employ external managers to look after a portion of their assets.

This must come as good news for the asset management industry, considering that Mexican pension funds have now roughly $120bn of assets under management, corresponding to 10 per cent of Mexico’s gross domestic product.

Source: The FT

Mexico's portfolio has reached a historical high, buoyed by strength in foreign investment, according to a research report Monday from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Portfolio inflows increased to $39.4 billion in 2010 from $19.1 billion in 2009, the report said, almost a 50% increase. Read more about the historic high in foreign investment in Mexico here.

Mexico Opens Up To Foreign Oil Investors

The Mexican Petroleum industry has long been defined by an relying too heavily on major oil fields - Cantarell and Ku-Maloob-Zaap (KMZ) - and not investing enough in exploration. Mexico ranks sixth in the world as an oil producer but declines in production are setting the country on the path of becoming a net importer. See more on what Mexico opening up the market to foreign oil investors means.

Lesson in Mexico's Monetary Policy: Part 2

Mexico does not maintain foreign-exchange (forex) restrictions. Capital moves freely across the country's borders. Any forex policy changes require approval by the Exchange Rate Commission, composed of officials from the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (Secretaria de Hacienda y Credito Publico -- SHCP) and Banco de Mexico.

Money-laundering regulations -- enacted since 1996 -- have improved scrutiny of large transactions. Rules require financial institutions (banks, credit unions, brokerage houses, exchange houses and "nonbank" banks) to report "suspicious" transactions to authorities within 20 working days. On a quarterly basis, financial institutions must also submit reports on transactions of monetary instruments with a value equal to or exceeding US$10,000. Nonetheless, money-laundering still remains a problem in Mexico, owing to lax enforcement and a lack of resources and co-ordination among the government bodies responsible for investigating and prosecuting money-laundering cases.

Source: Economist Intelligence Unit

Lesson in Mexico's Monetary Policy: Part 1

Banco de Mexico (the central bank -- Banxico) is the autonomous authority on monetary policy. The central bank has the primary objective of maintaining stability in the purchasing power of the peso. The value of the peso is determined by the market through a floating exchange-rate regime.

The central bank monitors price levels, and the economic variables that influence prices, in determining monetary policy. It also monitors the exchange rate, differences between observed and projected inflation, inflation expectations, revisions on collective employment contracts, producer prices, and the balances of the current and capital accounts.

President Calderon: 'Invest in Mexico'

President Felipe Calderon received executive officers from Avaya Inc., a New Jersey-based company specializing in business communication services, applications and systems, to discuss some of the actions carried out by his Administration to attract productive investment.

In the meeting, President Calderon stressed the responsible management of public finances and an unprecedented amount of investment in infrastructure -- almost 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Read more about why President Calderon says companies should invest in mexico.

Carlos Slim plans 3.6 billion in Mexico investments

According to Reuters online, the richest man on the planet, Carlos Slim, says he plans to boost investment in Mexico by 20 percent with telecoms, mining and infrastructure taking center stage.

Mexico remains a strong investment partner for General Electric

“Mexico Is Opportunity,” said Gabriela Hernandez Cardoso, CEO of General Electric-Mexico. During a recent interview, Cardoso pointed-out that GE will remain a strong partner for Mexico, ruling out any trouble in GE’s capacity to generate jobs or worry about a lack of safety. She did acknowledge that safety-related costs have gone up, but stated, “this is not an issue with a significant impact on the company’s income in Mexico”.