How long until a factory in Mexico starts producing?
Through a shelter, three to six months from decision to first production; with your own company, eight to fourteen, by one operator's count. Where power has to be brought in, the grid can set the calendar.
The short answer
A shelter is the fastest start, because the operator already holds the company, the permits and the import program. American Industries Group, a shelter operator, puts signing the shelter agreement at two to four weeks, importing about 30 days after that, and first production three to six months from the decision (6 Apr 2026, its own figures).
With your own company, the same operator counts eight to fourteen months on the critical path: one to three months to evaluate and choose a site, two to four to form and register the company, one to three to prepare the building, with recruiting and training (one to three months) running alongside. Industry certifications can add three to twelve months, and a new plant takes two to four months after first production to reach stable output.
Months, as stated by the operator and by CFE
Bar at the high end of each range
What moves the number
Power. This is where the place matters most. In Oct 2025, CFE, the federal electricity commission, set out its own packages for industrial parks: a connection to the transmission grid can take up to 25 months for the first phase, and one to the distribution grid about six; new generation projects, about 30 months for a first phase (Expansión, 7 Oct 2025). A building with its power already in place is worth months.
IMMEX. The export manufacturing program is applied for at the Secretaría de Economía, which charges no fee for it. Its official procedure page lists the processing time as variable and unspecified (gob.mx, procedure SE708, updated 9 Mar 2025); the operator above notes a statutory 15 business days, with backlogs adding weeks.
The building. Leasing an existing building is quicker than building one; in the tightest corridors, Class A space is mostly built to suit and pre-leased. The page on industrial rent has the vacancy by market.
Why the clock matters. Nearshoring, moving production to a country close to its market (Wikipedia, Nearshoring), is a race against other plants doing the same. Every month before the first shipment is rent, salaries and interest with nothing sold. The page on what a factory costs counts that money.
Where the book goes deeper
Where to Go in Mexico
Chapter 12: The Landed Cost and Time to Production, State by State
Chapter 6: Power: The Binding Constraint?
Chapter 12 sets the months from lease to first shipment by route and by place, and shows what the waiting costs. Chapter 6 measures power state by state, the constraint that most often decides the calendar.
See the bookYour own numbers
These are market figures, and some are an operator's own estimates. What your plant will cost, and when it can ship, depends on your product, your route and your place.
Every engagement starts in writing. Write to info@rutanamex.com; we sign an NDA before you share anything, and we do not charge to look at your paperwork. The fee for the work is quoted in writing before it begins.
The four questions every buyer asks first
Sources
- American Industries Group (a shelter operator; its own estimates), How to Start a Maquiladora in Mexico: Requirements, IMMEX Registration, and What to Expect, 6 Apr 2026
- gob.mx, Secretaría de Economía, procedure SE708, Autorización del Programa IMMEX, 9 Mar 2025
- Expansión, La CFE lanza estrategia para dotar de energía a parques industriales, 7 Oct 2025
- Wikipedia, Nearshoring, read 11 Nov 2026
Every source was read on 11 Nov 2026. A figure is as of the date its source gives.