your annual operating cost, by state
headcount and square footage. eight mexican manufacturing corridors. 2026 benchmark data.
total across all shifts
production floor plus office
placeholder: 1 kwh per sq ft. replace with your own draw.
On 2026 benchmarks, that operation runs between $1,098,400 and $1,556,000 a year depending on where you put it. The spread is $457,600 annually, or $2,288,000 across a five-year lease.
| location | labour | lease | power | annual total | vs. lowest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AguascalientesAguascalientes | $842,400 | $208,000 | $48,000 | $1,098,400 | baseline |
| San Luis PotosíSan Luis Potosí | $873,600 | $216,000 | $48,000 | $1,137,600 | +$39,200 |
| SaltilloCoahuila | $920,400 | $232,000 | $48,000 | $1,200,400 | +$102,000 |
| QuerétaroQuerétaro | $967,200 | $260,000 | $52,800 | $1,280,000 | +$181,600 |
| GuadalajaraJalisco | $1,014,000 | $272,000 | $52,800 | $1,338,800 | +$240,400 |
| MonterreyNuevo León | $1,060,800 | $280,000 | $52,800 | $1,393,600 | +$295,200 |
| TijuanaBaja California | $1,107,600 | $312,000 | $57,600 | $1,477,200 | +$378,800 |
| Mexico CityCDMX + Estado de México | $1,154,400 | $344,000 | $57,600 | $1,556,000 | +$457,600 |
Cost ranks the eight. It does not pick one. Aguascalientes comes out lowest here, and its strength is automotive, textiles, electronics, with a workforce of ~200K and 5 hrs to manzanillo. If your supplier base, your certification path or your border transit time point elsewhere, the cheapest line on this table is the wrong answer.
Labour is fully fringed and assumes 2,080 hours per employee per year. Lease is industrial space at the state benchmark rate. Power uses the industrial CFE tariff. Figures exclude incentives, which is the point: a negotiated state package moves these numbers materially, and it is negotiated before you sign, not after.
before cost, structure
Eleven questions on ownership structure, site, regulatory routing and timeline, and a scored read on where your entry is exposed.
take the diagnosticwhere these numbers come from
Mexico cost tables usually show you rates. A rate is not a budget. This one takes your headcount, your square footage and your power draw, multiplies them against each state's 2026 benchmarks, and gives you an annual figure you can put in front of a board.
Labour is fully fringed and assumes 2,080 hours per employee per year. Lease uses the benchmark industrial rate per square foot per year. Electricity uses the CFE industrial tariff. All three are published figures rather than internal estimates.
What the table leaves out is the thing that moves the result most: the state incentive package. That gets negotiated before you sign, and it changes the arithmetic materially. A real multi-state competition run through the state economic development ministries is how that number gets found.
the number this table leaves out
A state incentive package gets negotiated before you sign. If your decision is live, that competition between states can actually be run.
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