Posted on 07/03/2014 12:59:02 PM PDT by Moonman62
(Reuters) - Luxury car maker BMW (BMWG.DE) revealed a $1 billion Mexican plant investment on Thursday, becoming the latest in a line of major automakers to take advantage of the country's growing industrial base and tariff-free access to the U.S. market.
BMW outlined plans to build a factory near San Luis Potosi, central Mexico, in a move that will reduce the German company's dependence on higher-cost plants at home.
The plant will begin assembling unspecified models in 2019 with an initial workforce of 1,500 and annual production capacity of 150,000 vehicles, the company said.
"Mexico is an ideal location for the BMW Group," production chief Harald Krueger said in a statement. "We are continuing our strategy of 'production follows the market.'"
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Will this affect jobs here? We have a large plant in SC.
This plant, which will build cars for the U.S. market, should have been located in the U.S.
This is what is wrong. Companies refuse to locate anything that produces anything of value in the U.S.
Our once great country is being undermined and destroyed.
I’ll walk before I buy a car made in Mexico or China.
I don’t know, but the article mentions the threat of unions in the South may be a factor. It also says the lack of a tariff between the US and Mexico is a factor.
Mexican auto workers - $5/hr
US non-union auto workers - $15-20/hr
(rough numbers but you see the difference)
Plus I’m sure the costs of EPA, OSHA, etc type stuff are far less.
Yet another reason why the US/Mexico border should be sealed tighter than a nun’s.....well,you know.
“while sending its unwanted to America”
to take the jobs that haven’t been outsourced.
I actually was thinking about buying a BMW in the next year or two. Guess not.
YES, it will affect the BMW plant in SC. They can pay Mexicans a lot less than SC folks. Watch BMW expand the plant in MEX real soon
Looks like BMW knows the US-EU Free Trade deal, and TTIP are a go. Obama loves his Free Trade
South Carolina is right to work, and has the fewest unionized workers in the US....that article is BeeEss for even mentioning that
Most supporters of Free Trade lie as bad as their brethren in the Global Warming Hoax crowd (the two are hand in hand, right Al Gore?)
If BMW is setting up an assembly plant in mexico.....
I would suggest that SC start looking for a buyer for their plant, if it’s an assembly plant also.
Low wage mexican labor and virtually no red tape overhead trumps any US based facility.
Greer is adjacent to Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP), which serves Greenville, Spartanburg, and the Upstate. Greer is also the site of the only BMW manufacturing facility in North America. According to a June 2005 article in The Greenville News, BMW’s Greer plant employs about 4,600 workers, and has attracted dozens of suppliers in South Carolina, providing jobs for more than 12,000 workers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greer,_South_Carolina
If they left, it would kill our area.
Maybe U.S. unemployed can sneak across the border to Mexico and work in their factories.
Mexico treats illegals very harshly.
I know. I was being sarcastic.
and its not about jobs. Mexico’s unemployment is much lower than ours.
Odd, building cars in Mexico, selling them in the US, then stealing them and shipping them back to Mexico to be resold.
Seems there would be an easier way.
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