SAN JOSÉ CHIAPA, MEXICO — Suppliers of Audi AG's first assembly complex in North America will buy most of their raw materials from within the region, according to the German auto maker.
“Ninety percent of our raw materials, including plastics resins, will come from NAFTA [countries],” Bernd Martens, an Audi board member in charge of the company's procurement, told reporters.
Components such as interior mirrors, door panels, wire harnesses and dashboards will be supplied from a “just-in-sequence” (JIS) supplier park. Construction on the park started May 14.
For months Audi has been saying that to comply with NAFTA rules on exports, 65 percent of the value of the content of the vehicles it assembles in Mexico must be from North American Free Trade Agreement signatories: the United States, Canada and Mexico.
“We have reached that target,” Martens said in a speech at the park's groundbreaking ceremony. Audi plans to increase local content to 90 percent in the medium term, he said.
The JIS park is scheduled to open this year and will employ 1,000 at startup, according to Audi. The park is located alongside Audi's $1.3 billion assembly complex, which is under construction in the municipality of San José Chiapa, 40 miles northeast of Puebla. The complex is scheduled to start producing the Q5 SUV in 2016.