The automotive industry in Mexico has been hit by the natural gas scarcity provoked by the blizzard in Texas; Volkswagen, Audi, and Mazda were some of the car makers that announced a stop in their operations for this Thursday and Friday.
Firstly, Mexican news media reports that Volkswagen, the German car maker, was one of the first companies to declare a technical stop in their operations; “to reduce our natural gas consumption and in order to comply with the requirements from the government.”
In addition, the car maker underlined that production of its Jetta model would stop this Thursday and Friday; while production for the Taos and Golf models would stop just this Friday, February 19.
Secondly, Mazda, the Japanese automotive company, confirmed that its Guanajuato, Mexico, plants would stop production for two days; due to a profound natural gas scarcity. In fact, Mazda had stopped vehicle production since last Wednesday; said it would not start production again until February 20.
Moreover, General Motors also decided to stop operations at their Guanajuato plants; particularly, for its Silao complex, which had stop operations since February 16 and 17.
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Automotive, manufacture and oil industries affected in Mexico
On the other hand; Tatiana Clouthier, Mexico’s Economy minister, said she had contact with the Joe Biden administration in order to pursue them to restart natural gas exports again; after several electricity outages spread almost to the entire Mexican territory.
According to the National Energy Control Center (CENACE) for its Spanish acronym, last Wednesday, 17 February, nearly 26 Mexican states reported electricity outages; especially those with heavy industrial activity like oil, manufacture, and also, automotive.
Although CENACE had reported earlier this week that the electricity and natural gas supply was nearly under control, Mexican government exhorted industrial consumers to reduce their consumption.
As we have reported previously, Mexico imports from the U.S. nearly 65% of its total consumption. After the blizzard in Texas, natural gas trade between the U.S. and Mexico was suspended. On Monday, nearly 4,7 millions of users in Mexico experienced electricity outages.
