Reflecting on new business captured by its Monterrey, Mexico, automotive mirrors plant, Magna International Inc., will spend more than $16 million to expand the operation.
Magna announced Sept. 2 that will set up a new injection molding section at the Magna Mirror Systems Monterrey plant. It also will add 41 percent more floor space to increase the plant's area to 135,000 square feet, introduce an automated paint line and add an assembly line. Construction has begun and should be done in August 2016.
“By expanding our facility and introducing an automated paint line, we able to offer our customers more in terms of overall capability and product diversity,” stated the operation's general manager Genaro Costillo in a news release issued Sept. 2 when Magna held a commemoration ceremony for the project.
The Aurora, Ontario-based firm will boost employment at the site by almost 10 percent to 680.
The mirror systems operation now is capable of making and assembling mirror glass and complete exterior auto mirrors using glass bending, coating and cutting technologies.
Magna officials were not immediately available to provide more details about the plastics side of the operation.
The project is the second big investment Magna announced this year. In March it began building a $135 million automotive exteriors manufacturing facility in Querétaro. In the first quarter of 2016 the 285,000-square-foot site will begin molding and painting fascias and rocker panels for global auto producers with assembly plants in Mexico. The unit will start with seven 4,000-metric-tonne injection molding presses and two 2,000 metric tonners, sourced from KraussMaffei Group.