Mexican Auto Production Up

By Chris Kraul

May 14, 2002 12 AM PT

The 168,543 cars and trucks that rolled off Mexican assembly lines in April represent a 12.5% boost from March and a 19.3% increase from April 2001.

With three of every four vehicles assembled in Mexico destined for U.S. and Canadian showrooms, the increase is a clear sign that the U.S. economy is reviving, said the Mexican Automotive Industry Assn., a manufacturer trade group that releases the statistics.

Meanwhile, Mexican domestic sales continue to show healthy gains with year-to-date sales of 324,611 vehicles, equaling a 11.2% increase over the same four months in 2001.

Chris Kraul

Autos

Chris Kraul

Chris Kraul covered South America for the Los Angeles Times from his base in Bogota, Colombia. He joined the paper in 1987 and was business editor of the San Diego edition until it closed in 1992. He then began covering the border and Mexican economies until his assignment to The Times’ Mexico City bureau in 2001. He reopened the paper’s Bogota bureau in 2006. He has also covered the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He is a graduate of the University of South Florida and also has been a reporter at the San Jose Mercury News, San Diego Union-Tribune and the San Diego Business Journal.

Mexican Auto Production Up

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