Baja California and Border Cities Manufacturing

Baja California has the largest concentration of aerospace companies in Mexico and over fifty years supporting aerospace and defense manufacturing activities. Home to companies such as Lockheed Martin, Gulfstream, Tyco, ICON Aircraft, Eaton and Honeywell, the first six months of 2018 the Baja California aerospace sector received $27.5 million in foreign direct investment. In addition to OEM activities, Baja California also has FAA-certified MRO facilities.

The border cities are not just about assembly, but also innovation and design. The Honeywell MRTC located in Mexicali boasts a sophisticated wind tunnel for testing and serves Boeing, Airbus, Dassault Aviation, Embraer, Comac, Rolls-Royce and Hawker Beechcraft. Honeywell’s MRTC and its 12000 general mexican engineers and technicians also fabricate various systems for the construction of aircraft, including heat exchangers, water extractors, separators and ozone converters.

Life saving medical devices are made every day in the border cities of Mexico. The medical device cluster in Baja California include Greatbatch Medical, Medtronic, DJ Orthopedics Global, Smiths, CareFusion, Lancer, Flextronics, and Welch Allyn. In Baja California, the major commercial port of entry at Otay Mesa sees over 4,093,132 commercial truck crossings a year and in 2015 recorded a bidirectional trade value of $42.3 billion which is 189% higher than in 1998.

The Mexican border cities of Tijuana, Tecate, Mexicali and Ciudad Juárez are connected directly to U.S. via international highways, airports and a deep sea port in Ensenada. With annual medical device exports around $300,000 millons, Mexico is the largest exporter to the United States and Latin America. From pacemakers and feeding tubes, to orthopedic devices and x-ray machines, the border city medical device manufacturing sector is a well-established hub also geographically connected to the U. S’s 8^th largest life sciences hub in San Diego, California.