Why Mexico Could Be The Big Winner In Pandemic Shift To Nearshoring

Why Mexico Could Be The Big Winner In Pandemic Shift To Nearshoring

Masters of the Universe and other Mattel products could be made in Mexico not Asia amid a rush to ... [+] nearshoring. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) Major brands and retailers across the U. S. and Europe are looking to bring manufacturing closer to home amid the ongoing global supply chain crisis, with Mexico in pole position to gain from a pivot in strategy. Fed up with astronomical container costs, having their goods stuck in L. A.'s ports, ships stuck sideways down the Suez Canal or endlessly disrupted by fresh Asian Covid lockdowns, manufacturing is shifting closer to consumer markets. U. S. toymaker Mattel has become the latest company to switch tack after it announced mid-March that it had invested $50 million to expand its plant in Monterrey in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon. At 2. 25 million sq ft and employing nearly 3, 500 workers, it has become the company's largest manufacturing site, overtaking other hubs in China, Vietnam and Malaysia. Mattel closed two of its factories in Asia in 2019 and more recently shuttered a plant in Canada and another in Mexico, ahead of expansion of its mega-factory. Gabriel Galvan, Mattel's Latin America managing director, told Reuters: "Being