• OUTAGE: Manufacturing assembly plants in northern Mexico have lost US $2.7 billion in the last two days due to the blackouts triggered by a shortage of natural gas from Texas that has disrupted power plants. Industry is asking state-owned utility CFE for better coordination about power cuts.
• LOSSES: According to Mexico’s maquiladora industry advocacy association (INDEX), some 800 companies in or near the US border are incurring in monetary losses of about US $200 million every hour tied to logistics, wages and plant reactivation expenses.
• COORDINATION: “Manufacturing is the main economic engine we have in Mexico. So, this energy issue has a very important social impact”, said Luis Manuel Hernández, the head of INDEX. “(What we would like) is that they notify us of the restoration of electricity”.
• IMPACTS: Directly tied to the US supply chain, the maquiladora industry in northern Mexico says it expects that the blackouts will have lasting impacts in future companies’ planning on where to locate operations. Beyond maquiladoras, blackouts have affected Monday 4.7 million residential users.
