Lego to invest US $400M in Nuevo León: Thursday’s mañanera recapped
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🧱 Lego to invest US $400 million in Nuevo León: Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced that Lego will invest $400 million in Nuevo León between now and 2029, creating 1,300 “new, well-paid jobs.” Lego’s head of manufacturing in the Americas, Nancy Sánchez Moya, said the money will fund a new packing facility and an automated warehouse, calling it “the next chapter” of the company’s growth story in the state.
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⛽ Sheinbaum pressed on Guanajuato fuel seizure: A reporter asked whether the 59 million liters of fuel seized at a Guanajuato storage terminal last week was in fact huachicol (stolen or contraband fuel) amid speculation that it was not. Sheinbaum said the Attorney General’s Office is still reviewing the case and will report back in due course.
Why today’s mañanera matters
The announcement of a significant investment by Lego in the northern border state of Nuevo León gave added weight to President Sheinbaum’s Thursday morning press conference.
The Danish toy manufacturer has operated a plant in Monterrey for almost 20 years, investing heavily in the facility over that period. Today’s announcement reaffirmed the company’s strong commitment to Nuevo León, an industrial powerhouse.
Also of note at today’s mañanera was Sheinbaum’s response to speculation that a huge quantity of fuel seized by authorities at a storage facility in Guanajuato last week was not in fact stolen or illegally brought into the country.
Citing sources in the Federal Attorney General’s Office, La Jornada newspaper reported on Wednesday that the fuel seized is not “huachicol fiscal.“
Huachicol fiscal refers to fuel that was passed off as a different product when brought into the country in order to avoid the IEPS excise tax on fuel.
Lego to invest US $400 million in Nuevo León
Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced that Lego will invest US $400 million in Nuevo León, a state where the Danish company has its largest plant in the world.
He said that the investment, to be made between this year and 2029, will generate 1,300 “new, well-paid jobs.”
Ebrard also said that Lego’s investment “will allow the revival, the expansion, of the toy industry in Mexico and also of the petrochemical industry that is linked to all this.”
“… In order to make Lego, polymers, solvents and pigments are needed, [as well as] sometimes silicon, adhesives and many kinds of plastic,” he said.
Nancy Sánchez Moya, Lego’s head of manufacturing in the Americas, said that the $400 million investment will be used to fund a new packing facility and an “automated, high-capacity warehouse.”
She said that the investment will allow Lego to “strengthen” its production and logistics chains, “supporting the growth we have in our business.”
Sánchez spoke positively about Lego’s experience in Nuevo León, where the company has operated since 2008.
Over a period of almost two decades, Lego has “found qualified talent, solid logistics infrastructure and a world-class manufacturing ecosystem” in Nuevo León, she said.
Sánchez also said that “what we’re announcing today is not an isolated project.”
“It’s the next chapter of a story of growth for Lego Group that we’ve built in Nuevo León,” she said.
“It reaffirms the confidence we have in Mexico and in Nuevo León, but especially in the talent we’ve found [here] to continue growing every day,” Sánchez said.
Was the fuel seized in Guanajuato last week actually stolen?
A reporter put it to the president that it “now appears” that the 59 million liters of fuel seized at a storage terminal in Guanajuato last week was not in fact huachicol. The reporter noted that the Federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) delegate in Guanajuato was dismissed after the seizure of the fuel.
The Reforma newspaper reported on Thursday that “the false, ‘historic’ confiscation of huachicol in San José de Iturbide” had claimed its “first victim” — FGR delegate Juan Francisco Vera. Reforma also reported that the “illegality” of the seized fuel has not been confirmed.
In a separate report on Thursday, the news outlet Debate wrote that the fuel seizure in Guanajuato was “initially presented as a historic blow to huachicol,” but added that the bust was soon questioned due to a lack of evidence about the alleged illegality of the “confiscated product.”
According to La Jornada newspaper, the original search warrant was for the facilities of Gas del Noreste, an unregistered company. However, the search was carried out at the facilities of Gas Natural del Noroeste, a national gas distributor owned by Grupo Simsa.
For its part, the company Gas Natural del Noroeste said last week that “the operation of the storage terminal is entirely lawful and verifiable.”
The aforesaid reporter asked the president what the federal Security Cabinet had told her about the “alleged huachicol” that was seized in Guanajuato.
“I understand they’re still working on the permits that this company had or has,” Sheinbaum said, referring to Gas Natural del Noroeste and an FGR investigation into the operation of the storage terminal.
“The Attorney General’s Office will have to report in due course,” she said.
“I asked the attorney general [about the case] and she told me they’re still reviewing the permits and that they’ll report in due course,” Sheinbaum said.
She said that it can’t be determined whether the seized fuel was huachicol or not until the FGR completes its investigation.
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