The state of Nuevo Leon, in Northeast Mexico, is having a record-breaking 2022 so far in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), with $2,805.2 million US dollars invested by foreign companies from January to September, ranking first among all states in the country, after Mexico City. 

 

Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo Leon, concentrates 93% of the state’s total population and is the second largest metropolitan area in Mexico with over 6 million inhabitants.  

 

This figure represents an increase of 20.77% over the preliminary figure of FDI attracted by the state in 2021 for the same period ($2,322 million US dollars).

 

The best share of this amount is attributed to the manufacturing sector, which makes up 72.2% of the state’s total with $2,026 million dollars. This figure makes Nuevo Leon the largest recipient of FDI in the Manufacturing Sector in Mexico, representing 17.4% of the country’s total. 

 

The other sectors in which FDI was registered in Nuevo Leon were transport, storing, and mail with $226.1 million US dollars (8.1%); commerce with $175.4 million US dollars (6.3%); financial and insurance services with $168.3 million US dollars (6.0%); water, energy, and gas with $117.9 million US dollars (4.2%); and construction with $78.7 million US dollars (2.8%).

 

Among the countries that invested the most in Nuevo Leon is Argentina, in the first place, with $1,380 million US dollars, with companies such as the steel manufacturer Ternium which has been expanding their current operations in the state.

 

In second place is the United States, with $899.2 million US dollars, the country that has the largest number of foreign companies in Nuevo Leon and from which companies like Kohler, Mattel, and John Deere have been announcing recent investments.

 

Some examples of other foreign companies that have been announcing new investment projects in Nuevo Leon during the first 9 months of 2022 are Chinese ManWah ($100 million US dollars) and German BOSCH ($260 million US dollars).

 

Among those that have decided to trust in Nuevo Leon’s economic advantages to expand their current operations in the state are Danish LEGO ($500 million dollars); South Korean KIA ($408 million US dollars); Chinese Kuka Home ($150 million US dollars); German Henkel ($34.8 million US dollars); and Japanese Sumitomo ($12 million US dollars).

 

Nuevo Leon is leading the way on all fronts

 

Nuevo Leon leads the country in job creation with 103,623 new jobs being registered from January to October of the current year. This is especially outstanding when taking into account the fact that for the same period of 2019, before the pandemic began, 60,142 new jobs were created, which means that the labor market has surpassed pre-pandemic figures by 72.29% (2019 vs 2021).

 

From the accumulated annual number of formal jobs, 33.8% correspond to the manufacturing industries, 25.6% to services, 15.8% to construction, and 12.0% to commerce, according to official data from the Ministry of Economy.

 

On the other hand, official data for 2022’s third quarter reveals that the development of industrial real estate spaces in Nuevo Leon is at an all-time high with more than 927,000 square meters currently being constructed across more than 33 industrial facilities. These figures lead the country, by far. 

 

Industrial gross absorption for the first 9 months of 2022 has registered 1.39 million square meters, 52% higher than the figure recorded in the same period of 2021. This figure is outstanding if we consider that for the past 10 years Nuevo Leon has led the country every year with an average industrial gross absorption of 800,000 million square meters. 

 

The strong economic environment is also reflected in the growth of industrial inventory in Nuevo Leon, where by the end of the third quarter of 2022, 16 new industrial facilities were added, closing at 12.17 million square meters of existing inventory. 

 

Nuevo Leon leads the country with 150 industrial parks, and at least 10 more are currently being developed in Monterrey’s metropolitan area.