Monterrey, Mexico News

About Monterrey, Mexico

Monterrey is a major industrial center among cities in Mexico , producing a GDP of 78.5 billion US dollars (2006). The city's GDP per capita in 2006 was 21,788 US dollars.

The city was ranked the 2 to do business in Mexico and in 2005 and currently is ranked as the third best by the América Economía magazine. Most of the major companies in Mexico, which are also large companies in the world, are headquartered in Monterrey.

As a result of its strong steel industry, it is often called "the Pittsburgh of Mexico". The city has prominent positions in sectors such as steel, cement, glass, auto parts, and beer.

In 1999 Fortune magazine recognized Monterrey as the best city in Latin America in which to do business. The magazine attributes its economic wealth in part to its proximity with the United States-Mexican border and mentions Monterrey as a significant city with economic links to the United States.

The industrialization process was accelerated in the mid 19th Century by the Compañia Fundidora de Fierro y Acero Monterrey a steel-processing company. Today Monterrey is home of transnational conglomerates such as Cemex (world's third largest cement company), FEMSA (Coca-Cola Latin America), Alfa (petrochemicals, food, telecommunications and auto parts), Axtel (telecommunications) and Banorte (financial services).

The FEMSA corporation owns a large brewery, the Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma that produces the brands Sol, Tecate, Indio, Dos Equis and Carta Blanca among others.

By the end of the same year, there were more than 13,000 manufacturing companies, 55,000 retail stores, and more than 52,000 service firms in Monterrey. Monterrey accounts for about 95% of the State of Nuevo Leon's GDP, and 30% of Mexico's manufactured exports.

The metals sector, dominated by iron and steel, accounted for 6 percent of manufacturing GNP in 1994. The steel industry is centered in Monterrey, where the country's first steel mills opened in 1903.

Steel processing plants in Monterrey, privatized in 1986, accounted for about half of Mexico's total steel output in the early 1990s.

Monterrey was ranked 94 worldwide and 5 in Latin America in terms of Quality of Life according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting (2006), and was ranked number 2 in 2005 and number 4 in 2006, according to America Economia.

Other Major Cities:

• Ciudad de México
• Ecatepec
• Guadalajara
• Puebla
• Ciudad Juárez
• Tijuana
• León
• Nezahualcóyotl
• Zapopan
• Naucalpan
• Chihuahua
• Mérida