Mexico-based Metalsa formally inaugurated its new $180 million plant to produce more than 300,000 steel chassis per year for the Toyota Tacoma Next Generation pickup truck, the company reported in a live broadcast on social media.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Grupo Proeza, Metalsa's controller, Enrique Zambrano Benítez, said that this new plant is one of the most important for the company in Mexico. He indicated that it is equipped with the latest technology, with artificial intelligence technology.
The new plant employs more than a thousand workers, the production capacity is 308,000 chassis per year. That is, every hour they will produce 35 units to reach 844 daily and 25,667 per month. Production will be for the two Toyota plants in Mexico: Baja California and Guanajuato. The new Metalsa plant is inside the Toyota facilities, in the city of Apaseo El Grande, Guanajuato.
The President of Toyota Guanajuato, Juan Francisco García López, said that the inauguration takes place 17 weeks after the start of mass production of the Tacoma Next Generation truck in Mexico.
The governor of Guanajuato, Diego Sinhue Rodríguez, present at the inauguration, perhaps as a joke or not, said that his tour of Asia told Toyota in Japan to move its production from Baja California to Guanajuato. Data from the Mexican Association of the Automotive Industry (AMIA) show that this plant employs 1,600 workers and produces around 138,000 units.
Guanajuato is the sixth largest economy in Mexico for its contribution to GDP and is the largest automotive economy in the country by the number of vehicles produced.
In 2022, Toyota's Tacoma pickup was the one with the highest production in Mexico with around 461,000 units, followed by General Motors' Silverado double cab with almost 348,000 units, followed by Volkswagen's Tiguan SUV with approximately 335,000 units. , according to AMIA data.
Metalsa has production plants in Mexico, the United States, Thailand, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, China and India.