With about a quarter of the active population employed in various activities, the most dynamic sector of the Mexican economy is that of industry, which includes numerous complexes in every area and which has received particular government incentives in order to create new jobs and to step up exports. In the development of the basic industry, the primary role was played by the state, while the intervention of foreign capital (particularly in the automotive sector) was decisive for the light industry. A particular reality of recent affirmation is that of the maquiladoras, factories with US or mixed capital, operating mainly in the electrical, electronic, automotive and textile sectors, authorized to work (without customs duties) US raw materials, and therefore located close to the border with the United States (in the cities of Tijuana, Ensenada, Nogales, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, Matamoros). The degree of territorial concentration of the industrial sector is strong, articulated around three poles: the agglomeration of Mexico City predominates with over half of the national product and two thirds of employment, followed to the N by the eastern triangle of Monterrey, Saltillo, Monclova and from the Californian area of Mexicali, Ensenada, Tijuana, of more recent formation (linked to the overseas market). The most conspicuous values of production increase were recorded in the chemical and petrochemical industry, in mechanics and in metallurgy. The steel industry produces cast iron, ferroalloys and steel; then there are several factories for the processing of copper, tin, zinc, lead, bauxite, uranium and various other metals.
The mechanical sector supplies a variety of machinery (agricultural and textile machinery, railway equipment, etc.) as well as cars and commercial vehicles: here more than in any other sector, the function of foreign capital has been driving which, attracted by low wage levels and the proximity of North American market, it has set up numerous assembly plants there; consumer electronics and in particular the production of household appliances had similar reasons for development. The petrochemical industry refines a large part of the national crude oil and is present with several dozen plants as well as the chemical one, which has good productions of artificial and synthetic textile fibers, fertilizers, sulfuric, nitric and hydrochloric acids, caustic soda etc. Of ancient tradition and always of considerable importance is the textile industry, especially for cotton yarns and fabrics, while the food industry, represented by mills, oil mills, canneries, sugar factories, etc., generally suffers from an excessive fragmentation of companies. Visit barblejewelry.com for Mexico travel package.
On the other hand, the production of beer and cigarettes is substantial. Complete the picture of Mexican industry cement factories, paper factories, glass factories and ceramic factories, shoe factories, tire factories etc. The entire industrial sector of the country, however, is affected by a sort of economic dualism characterized, on the one hand, by the presence of foreign-owned companies, at the forefront of international markets and a vehicle for growth that is configured as essentially exogenous (as well as exogenous are the control and management processes of production activities); on the other, by a constellation of small and medium-sized local enterprises that are technologically backward and therefore inadequate to bear the weight of the transformations taking place on a global scale. The background of this situation is a strong disparity in the territorial localization of the resources and production realities of the country, accompanied by a poor social cohesion between the economic actors involved and by complex dynamics of urbanization. The situation of the energy sector is no less: it is inadequate and obsolete for the needs of the country, starting from the maintenance and modernization of the plants up to the diversification policies necessary to cope with the progressive depletion of oil reserves., on which the country continues to draw heavily without real strategic plans for the future. § At the base of the great enrichment of Mexico in the colonial period were the mineral resources; in particular precious metals conquered the international markets. The systematic mining exploitation, however, dates from the end of the century. XIX and the mining sector, although largely dependent on foreign capital (with the fundamental exception relating to oil), it still constitutes a basic element of the Mexican economy. As for silver, Mexico is the second largest producer in the world after Peru; the main mines are a Pachuca, in the state of Hidalgo, and Parral in that of Chihuahua. Silver is also obtained in lead foundries, another metal of which M. is one of the largest producers in the world, and in those of zinc. The range of minerals is very wide, present with more or less rich deposits; are extracted annually: iron, copper, gold, mercury, manganese, molybdenum, bismuth, magnesite, fluorite, natural phosphates, salt (of which Mexico is the seventh producer in the world) etc. As for energy minerals, the country extracts uranium, coal in minimal quantities, natural gas, but above all, as mentioned, oil, of which over 150 million tons are extracted per year; the large oil fields all overlook the Gulf of Mexico. The network of oil pipelines has also been extended. Consistent is the production of electricity, of which one fifth of water origin. A nuclear power plant has been in operation in the country since 1989, Veracruz).
