Factories in Mexico and maquiladoras for US manufacturers

Two ways to make a product in Mexico

There are two routes, and most guides blur them. In a shelter (the modern form of the maquiladora), you run your own production in Mexico while a shelter company employs the workers, leases the building and holds the import permits under its own Mexican entity. TACNA, IVEMSA, Tecma, NAPS, Prodensa, Tetakawi, Entrada and American Industries all sell this. You bring the equipment, the process and the managers.

With a contract manufacturer, the plant builds your product on its own lines and you buy finished goods. Keytronic in Juarez, Kimball Electronics in Reynosa, SMTC in Chihuahua, Benchmark in Guadalajara and Tijuana, and NEOTech in Juarez all run electronics lines this way. Prince Manufacturing does metal fabrication and powder coating in Juarez and Monterrey, and Viant Medical molds and assembles medical devices in Tijuana.

The choice is not about cost first. It is about whether you want to run a factory. A US brand moving a product off a Chinese supplier usually wants the second route, because it replaces one supplier with another. A US manufacturer moving its own line wants the first. Some companies sit in between: NovaLink in Matamoros prices "from fully loaded hourly rates to a full package model where NovaLink provides the raw materials and equipment."

The gate is headcount, not a minimum order

In China the first question is the MOQ. In a Mexican shelter the first question is how many people you will employ, because that is what the shelter is built to manage. Three operators publish a floor. TACNA in Baja California: "We are equipped to serve operations in the range of 25 to 1,500+ employees under the shelter services model." IVEMSA, headquartered in Mexicali: "Maquiladoras can start as small as 50 people and 15,000 square feet to establish a presence and grow from there." NovaLink: a floor plan "as small as 5,000 square feet" and at least five employees, but "We do not work with startups, or companies that are interested in doing short runs."

IVEMSA also publishes the break even, which is the most useful sentence we found: "If the need is for a smaller group of 10 to 20 employees, manufacturers may not see the return on investment to make it worth their while. Whereas, companies hiring 50+ workers will find a positive impact on costs."

So if your annual volume would keep fewer than about 20 people busy, a shelter is the wrong tool. Look for a contract manufacturer whose volume band fits, or stay with a US plant. Our low MOQ manufacturers page covers the small run end.

How long it takes to start, by their own numbers

Every shelter publishes a start up time, and several publish two different ones. Intermex in Chihuahua and Juarez claims the shortest: "Rapid deployment and start up of operations in only 9 weeks." TACNA says "as few as 12 weeks". Tecma says "as little as 30-90 days" with no start up fee. Entrada says "as little as 90 days". IVEMSA says 3 to 4 months on one page and "2-3 months, after signing a lease agreement" on another, against "7-8 months" without a shelter.

The most complete version is Tetakawi's: "Most manufacturers go from deciding on Mexico to producing in Mexico in three to six months. A well-prepared operation can get started on a Campus in as little as 30 days. A standalone operation typically takes 8 to 18 months." Prodensa adds the tax side of a standalone build: about 10 months to first IMMEX operations and 13 to 16 months before full VAT certification benefits, and until IMMEX is approved, "temporary imports carry 16% VAT."

Read the short numbers as best cases. The clock usually starts when a building is leased and equipment is ready to ship, and the published figures disagree even within one company. Budget the long end.

What shelter fees are based on, and what labor costs

None of the ten shelter operators we read publishes a dollar shelter fee. Four publish the basis. Tecma: "a charge that is based on labor hours", with rent paid separately and "no fees that are related to starting up". Entrada: "Our model is based on your headcount." IVEMSA: "we charge one fee", with no fee to move from the shelter to your own entity later. NovaLink: hourly rates up to a full package. Because the fee follows hours or headcount, ask for it as a rate per labor hour and compare it against the wage itself.

Labor is the line the operators do publish, and their figures differ by date and region. Tetakawi, the most recent: "as of the third quarter of 2026, direct labor starts at about $4.33 an hour fully fringed for unskilled positions, about $5.78 for semi-skilled roles and about $6.10 for machinists, at 17.5 pesos per dollar." NAPS put the 2025 average fully burdened direct rate at about $5.30 an hour. IVEMSA quotes $5.90 for non skilled and $7.60 for skilled workers. Tetakawi also publishes industrial rent of about $0.79 per square foot per month in Tijuana and $0.65 in Monterrey for the second quarter of 2026.

Savings claims such as "cut production costs 50% or more" or "up to 80%" appear on several sites with no stated basis. Build your own model from the hourly rate, the shelter rate and the rent.

Contract manufacturers publish a volume band, not a minimum

Not one of the Mexican contract manufacturers we read publishes a dollar or unit minimum, but most say what volume they want, and that is your real filter. Jabil Chihuahua: "multi-million unit production programs". SMTC Chihuahua: "Medium to Higher Volume Range and Medium to High Mix". Benchmark Guadalajara: "medium- to high-volume". Sanmina Guadalajara, enclosures: "high-mix and medium-volume". NEOTech Juarez is the clear exception at "low to medium volume, high mix". PentaLogix, next to Calexico, states "No minimum or maximum quantity" for PCB assembly, with turnkey quotes in 24 to 48 hours.

Scale is published too. Kimball Electronics Reynosa has "more than 3,100 employees" and 15 SMT lines on a 470,000 square foot campus. Keytronic Juarez has eight facilities totaling 899,000 square feet and 2,615 people. Viant Medical Tijuana runs "48 injection molding presses operating 24/7". These are plants that need a program, not a one off order. Our ranking of the best contract manufacturers in Mexico gives a best-for verdict on each of ten. If you need 500 boards, NEOTech or PentaLogix is a realistic first call; if you need 500,000, Jabil and SMTC are. For US alternatives in the same process, see our electronics contract manufacturers and metal fabricators pages.

Certifications are per plant, so check the Mexican one

A company certificate list is not a plant certificate list. Keytronic publishes the best per site table we found: its Mexican operation holds ISO 13485, IATF 16949, ISO 45001 and FDA registration, but AS9100D and ITAR are listed only for its US sites. So an aerospace or defense buyer would not use Keytronic Mexico for that work. Benchmark is the opposite case: its Tijuana page lists AS9100:2016, Nadcap and ITAR, while its Guadalajara page lists ISO 13485 and TL 9000. NEOTech's Agave plant in Juarez lists AS9100:2016 and ISO 13485:2016; its Agave II plant lists ISO 13485 without AS9100.

Watch for stale lists. Jabil's Chihuahua brochure is dated 2018 and still cites TS 16949 and ISO 9001:2008, both superseded. Prince Manufacturing lists QS 9000, retired years ago. Ask for the current certificate with the plant address on it. The AI agent surfaces the certifications each plant states and flags when a claim is company wide rather than site specific.

Duty free claims, IMMEX and the October 2026 tariff picture

Several shelter sites say a maquiladora lets you ship to the US duty free. That is not what the program does. Mexico's Secretaría de Economía describes IMMEX as a program that "permite el diferimiento del impuesto de importación", a deferral of Mexican import tax on inputs that are re exported. Whether your finished product enters the US duty free depends on USMCA rules of origin, which are product specific: a tariff shift, often with a regional value content of 60% under the transaction value method or 50% under net cost, and 75% for passenger vehicles and core auto parts.

The US side as of October 2026, from official texts: the Supreme Court held on February 20, 2026 that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs, and CBP stopped collecting the 25% fentanyl duty on February 24. From July 24, 2026, USTR imposed a 10% Section 301 duty on products of Mexico, but it "shall not apply to any products of Mexico entered free of duty under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement." Section 232 duties apply on top regardless: 50% on steel, aluminum and copper articles, 25% on most derivatives, and 25% on autos. The USMCA was not renewed in its current form on July 1, 2026 but "remains in force", and USTR has opened comments for the 2027 review. Mexico also raised its own duties on many inputs from non treaty countries such as China from January 2026, as reported by trade law firms, which matters if your Mexican plant would import Chinese components.

The practical result: a part that qualifies under USMCA pays no US duty and no Section 301 duty; a part assembled in Mexico from mostly Chinese inputs may pay its normal duty plus 10%. We do not classify products or determine origin. Ask each plant for a USMCA certification of origin on your part, and confirm with a licensed customs broker.