The golden opportunity for Mexico? Microchip market would detonate the industrial real estate sector

Despite the outstanding issues to be resolved for the industrial real estate developmentsector analysts maintain positive expectations for the arrival of companies from the US microchip market in Mexico.

According to Sergio Mireles, general director of the real estate consultant Datoz, this factor is a window of opportunity to trigger new projects in national territory.

It should be remembered that, in September 2022, federal authorities received a delegation from the United States government to join Mexico in that country’s plan that seeks to detonate the production of microchips and avoid Chinese dominance.

A month earlier, President Joe Biden approved the Chips and Science Act, which includes an investment of 52,000 million dollars for grants, research and development.

During her visit to Mexico, Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce of the United States, stressed that both countries will collaborate with their private sectors to identify sites with the appropriate skills, infrastructure and industrial capabilities.

“We will work together to carry out a pilot program that determines the feasibility of bringing the production centers of semiconductor supplies closer together,” the Mexican government reported, in the context of said collaboration.

Energy earrings

Despite the advances in international agreements to strengthen the microchip industry, Mireles said that there is still an obstacle in terms of energy in Mexico to achieve it.

“Together with the Data Centers, it is a window of opportunity that is opening for the country, but the question is whether we can take advantage of it, because they are processes that are going to demand large amounts of energy,” he argued in a meeting with the media.

In this sense, he pointed out that the federal government is misaligned with private initiatives, especially in the development of infrastructure for energy distribution in industrial real estate spaces.

“This could present an obstacle for Mexico to capitalize on these issues and continue to take advantage of the great demand in the following months, even years,” he commented.

Another record year for the sector?

Regardless of the obstacles and after a 2021 with record indicators, driven by relocation projects -nearshoring- and electronic commerce, the industrial real estate It is shaping up to close 2022 as a year of consolidation.

Although only six of 21 markets increased in demand during the third quarter of 2022, Mireles explained that the sector is just four percentage points away from reaching the activity registered during the past year.

“In the first nine months of the year, 4.37 million square meters were absorbed and the strong demand continues, so we do not rule out that it is still possible that 2022 will reach or even exceed the final figures for 2021,” he said.

Finally, he mentioned that Mexico City, Monterrey, Cd. Juárez, Tijuana and Querétaro are the leading markets at the national level, since they accumulate more than 61% of the activity.

samanta.escobar@eleconomista.mx