According to data from the Secretaría de Economía, nearly half of the total foreign direct investment (FDI) flows received by Mexico over the past two years were directed to the manufacturing industry.
In 2023, the manufacturing industry in Mexico attracted approximately USD $18 billion from foreign investors, reflecting a 29% year-over-year (YoY) increase and a 9% higher flow than in 2019, prior to the pandemic's disruption.
Given that this trend is expected to be bolstered by the nearshoring phenomenon, we decided to explore manufacturing production in Mexico more thoroughly—particularly focusing on those industries that have attracted the most foreign investment.
Based on data from the country’s economics ministry, we found that in 2023, nearly 1,700 foreign companies reported making investments on Mexican soil. This is 10% less than in 2022 and 15% lower than in 2018.
Interestingly, the industries that have received the most FDI over the past five years have shown mixed results in terms of manufacturing output.
For instance, the manufacturing of computer and electronic equipment saw FDI accumulate to more than USD $6 billion from 2019 to 2023—a figure equivalent to 35% of the industry’s total production output, according to INEGI.
Despite this, the production value has contracted by nearly 2% on average each year since 2019.
On the other hand, food manufacturing received foreign direct investment (FDI) equivalent to just 0.6% of the industry’s total output. Despite this, food producers in Mexico managed to grow their total output at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 8% over the past four years, marking one of the highest growth rates within the manufacturing industry.
To better understand the dynamics behind manufacturing in Mexico, we created this graphic that visualizes the composition of total production value in the country by the category of individual products.
As you can see, the country’s manufacturing output is quite diverse and complex—despite two major industries, transportation and food, accounting for more than 50% of total production value within a single year.