Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico

🇲🇽 Monterrey is the capital and largest city of the north-eastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico. The city is anchor to the Monterrey metropolitan area, the second most productive in Mexico with a GDP of US$140 billion in 2015, and the second largest metropolitan area in Mexico.

Monterrey is one of the most liveable cities in Mexico, and a 2018 study found that suburb San Pedro Garza García is the city with the best quality of life in Mexico. It serves as a commercial centre of northern Mexico and is the base of many significant international corporations. Its purchasing power parity-adjusted GDP per capita is considerably higher than the rest of Mexico's at around US$35,500. Rich in history and culture, it is one of the most developed cities in Mexico.

As an important industrial and business centre, the city is also home to many Mexican companies, including Arca Continental, Grupo Avante, Lanix Electronics, Ocresa, Cemex, Vitro, OXXO, FEMSA, DINA S.A., Gamesa, Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery, and Grupo ALFA. Multiple international companies, including Cognizant, Siemens, Accenture, MSCI, Ternium, Sony, Toshiba, Carrier, Whirlpool, Samsung, Toyota, Babcock & Wilcox, Daewoo, British American Tobacco, Nokia, Dell, Boeing, HTC, General Electric, Johnson Controls, LG, SAS Institute, Grundfos, Danfoss, Qualfon and Teleperformance, also have regional offices in Monterrey.

The uninterrupted settlement of Monterrey was founded by Diego de Montemayor in 1596. In the years after the Mexican War of Independence, Monterrey became an important business centre. With the establishment of Fundidora Monterrey, the city has experienced great industrial growth.

Economy Monterrey is a major industrial centre in northern Mexico, with a GDP (PPP) of US$140 billion and a GDP (PPP) per capita of US$31,900 in 2015. The city was rated by Fortune magazine in 1999 as the best city in Latin America for business and is currently ranked third best by the América Economía magazine.

The city has prominent positions in sectors such as steel, cement, glass, auto parts, and brewing. The city's economic wealth has been attributed in part to its proximity to the United States-Mexico border and economic links to the United States.

Industrialisation was accelerated in the mid 19th century by the Compañia Fundidora de Fierro y Acero Monterrey, a steel-processing company. Today, Monterrey is home to transnational conglomerates such as Cemex (the world's third largest cement company), FEMSA (Coca-Cola Latin America, largest independent Coca-Cola bottler in the world), Alfa (petrochemicals, food, telecommunications and auto parts), Axtel (telecommunications), Vitro (glass), Selther (leading mattress and rest systems firm in Latin America), Gruma (food), and Banorte (financial services). The FEMSA corporation owned a large brewery, the Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery (Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma) that produces the brands Sol, Tecate, Indio, Dos Equis and Carta Blanca among others, in the beginning of the year Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery was sold to Dutch-based company Heineken. By the end of the same year, there were more than 13,000 manufacturing companies, 55,000 retail stores, and more than 52,000 service firms in Monterrey.

The metals sector, dominated by iron and steel, accounted for 6 percent of manufacturing GNP in 1994. Mexico's steel industry is centred in Monterrey, where the country's first steel mills opened in 1903. Steel processing plants in Monterrey, privatised in 1986, accounted for about half of Mexico's total steel output in the early 1990s.

Monterrey was ranked 94th world-wide and fifth in Latin America in terms of Quality of Life according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting (2006), and was ranked second in 2005 and fourth in 2006, according to América Economía.

Some of the shopping malls in the city include Paseo San Pedro, Paseo La Fe, Plaza Fiesta San Agustín, Galerías Monterrey, and Galerías Valle Oriente, which distribute goods and services to the Mexican population.

Companies in Monterrey include: • Alestra • Axtel • Banorte • BanRegio • Disa Records • Farmacias Benavides • FEMSA • Grupo Famsa • Grupo Garza Ponce • Grupo Salinas • Milenio • OXXO • SARO (airline) • Softtek • Soriana • ALFA (Mexico) • Arca Continental • Cemex • Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery • Grupo Industrial Ramirez • Industrias AlEn • PYOSA • Selther • Sigma Alimentos.