Star Metro - Taiwan's Quanta Computer confirms new investment in Mexico

A Tesla supplier and Macbook maker, Quanta is one of the world's leading electronics and contract manufacturers, and is best known for making the "brains" that go inside electric cars.

"Quanta has investment plans in Mexico and will gradually advance based on customer demands and (its) business development plan," it announced in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

It declined to provide financial details, saying only that "the investment in Mexico does not involve equity investment".

Quanta's statement comes a day after the governor of the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon announced an investment of "$1 billion more" from the company after a successful pilot project.

"Because they liked it so much, they gave us the news that of the $250 million (already invested), they are going to invest $1 billion more," Garcia said in a video he shared on Twitter Tuesday.

He added the investment was "just for equipment and technology transfer" in the first phase, and that land and construction would still need to be factored in.

Quanta has already recruited a workforce of 2,500 people since starting operations in Nuevo Leon.

The state is home to Monterrey city, where Elon Musk's Tesla is currently building a $5 billion new "gigafactory".

The investments in Nuevo Leon are part of the "nearshoring" trend among American companies and their suppliers, in which production sites are established closer to the US market.

In an interview with AFP in March, Garcia said production of Tesla electric vehicles could begin next January at the giant plant.

He added that he hoped the investment would create 7,000 direct jobs in Monterrey -- and 40-50,000 indirect ones, as Tesla was expected to bring with it many of the companies that make parts for its vehicles.

Between November and February, around 30 Tesla suppliers arrived in the region, Garcia said.

M.Anderson--SMC