In the limelight and with a privileged location on the map of Mexico, the industrial state of San Luis Potosí aids with the logistics and communications between highways and the city center, ports, and borders.
National and foreign companies are drawn to San Luis Potosí for its many benefits including its low cost, safety, infrastructure, raw materials, attractive pricing for marketing their products and services, customers interested in their production, suppliers in a strategic location, plus its high quality of life.
Likewise, the state’s inestimable natural beauty and its neoclassical and Baroque style – a legacy from the location’s colonial past – have been key selling points for businesses.


After surviving a crisis that struck in late 2008 and continued until 2010, San Luis Potosi’s activity has been picking up since January of this year.
The town is noted for being home to companies from the automotive engineering, auto parts and appliances sector.
“The state has had some good news in the industrial real estate sector, and now all the plants are producing and filling their factories to almost 100 percent,” said Marisela Valencia, Marketing Manager for Citius Capital’s Bajio Region.
The State is made up of 13 industrial parks, which are rebounding thanks to investments that were left pending during the global crisis but have recently been concluded.


Las Colinas Industrial Park, Stainless Steel Industrial Park, FINSA, Impulso Industrial Park, Integra Industrial Park for Suppliers, Interzona Industrial Park, Park Logistik-FTZ, Millennium Industrial Park, Provincia de Arroyos Industrial Park, Fundidores Industrial Park, Transparque Industrial Park , Tres Naciones and Interpuerto Industrial Park, and Logistico Industrial Park are the industrial sites that offer quality, infrastructure and business opportunities to investors.
Among the companies that stand out for their interest in San Luis Potosi’s location is Eptec, a company dedicated to serving the metalworking industry. It is installed and operating in a18.019-square-foot area of Tres Naciones Industrial Park.
Bellvue is another company that drew attention when it settled into a484.376-square-foot space at the Millenium Park. It has yet to start operations.


For its part, Grupo Industrial Vela installed itself in a 172.222-square-foot plant in the Logistik Industrial Park, the same plant that has held the company GM since 2007 and is currently operating at 100% of its production and expansion capacity.
Beckton Dickinson, Faurecia, ABB, Valeo, Mabe, Cummins, Continental, Estafeta, Fastenal Mexico, Lion Tube, and Amaro Transportes are some of the companies that have been attracted by local industrial parks’ competitive advantages.
In particular, it is worth mentioning one specific business that is just planning to enter the market in San Luis Potosi.


OTSCON is a company that will be dedicated to manufacturing brake and pedal systems in a space that is currently being built through Suntak’s Project Management.
It will operate in a construction area of 5.000 square meters and will expand to 13, 000 square meters in its second stage.
“This is a project that is allowing us to and demanding that we have a location in San Luis Potosi and in the Bajio zone, which is growing tremendously. We are seeing a lot of potential for the industrial zone,” said José Luis Benitez Romo, Commercial Director of Suntak, an industrial real estate developer.
From first- and second-generation Class A plants, with security and access to main roads, to attractive costs and first-world infrastructure: all of these will be options included in the aforementioned development, which will have services such as electricity, water, sewage, industrial gas, and telephone/internet.



Value added

The economic structure of the State of San Luis Potosi is changing gradually and its productive activities have become increasingly integrated, which have fostered significant changes in its production methods. Manufacturing processes are now performed more cohesively and efficiently, allowing new products to be developed with high quality and added value.
Now, manufacturing and specialized services are the sectors showing a sustained trend toward the optimization of global value chains integration and generating the greatest wealth. In real terms of the Gross Internal Product, it is estimated that the State’s main activities are the manufacturing industry, which participates with 24 percent; the trade industry with 19.2 percent; community services with 14.6 percent; and financial services with 11.8 percent.
San Luis Potosí has had an established industrial area for several years, thanks to the government’s backing and the aid of private capital.



Industrial Plus

San Luis Potosi has also benefited from the collaboration of industrial brokers that support investors by providing details of available plants in the area.
Citius Capital, NAI, and Grubb and Ellis lend a hand on issues of industrial real estate, as well as by sharing their knowledge of the city, the industrial market, and available property. Plus, they facilitate contacts with developers and government offices, and also with industry-related and other service providers.



Dry port

The state is seen as a strategic link for distribution and marketing of goods destined for importing and exporting, which is why it was necessary to create an inland port.
The Parque Logistico Interpuerto San Luis Potosi is located just 4 kilometers west of the NAFTA México-Laredo highway and 20 kilometers south of downtown San Luis Potosi, in a 600-hectare area. 280 hectares within the park have infrastructure, including the RFE and 23% of the Intermodal Terminal.
The Inland Port has different functions, such as receiving goods from Asia and giving them added value within the free-trade zone so as to later return them abroad or import them. Likewise, it uses the NAFTA Rail Corridor (Lazaro Cardenas-Laredo) for all goods coming from Asia with a final destination of the east coast of the United States.


Today, 16 companies are located within the Interpuerto Park, of which most are from the automotive industry and come from such different countries as Germany, Japan, France, Switzerland, Sweden, and Korea.
Notably, the world’s largest carrier company, JB Hunt, is already operating with the company as an entrance HUB to the center of the country, along with other companies such as PACER, SCHNEIDER, and virtually all the carriers that provide service to central México.
For the state of San Luis Potosi to have the Interpuerto is of great importance because the port has its own customs agency and offers services to an industrial area whose radius of influence spans from 200 to 400 kilometers.