From the steel melted in Minas Gerais to the assembly lines of the Valley of Mexico, the continent’s industrial map is being reshaped under the pressure of new U.S. tariffs. And today, Brazilian firms are expanding in Mexico to navigate the trade conflict.

The first to move have been Brazilian steel and manufacturing companies, already adjusting their footprint to maintain access to the North American market. Among them are WEG and Gerdau, two giants that plan to invest nearly $900 million in Mexico.

The trigger was political. Between July and September 2025, the White House raised tariffs on Brazilian steel and other goods from 10–25% to 50%, citing national security and trade reciprocity. Only strategic sectors—such as aerospace, energy, fertilizers, and basic minerals—were exempt.

For now, the impact is not visible on a large scale, though that doesn’t mean it won’t be. Today, Brazilian companies account for roughly one of every two hundred square meters in Mexico’s main industrial markets across the north, center, and Bajío regions. Their presence, however, continues to expand. According to SiiLA, between the third quarter of 2024 and 2025, their gross leasable area grew by 3%—a slower pace than the 7% recorded a year earlier, when the sector moved ahead of tariff revisions on Brazilian steel and aluminum. During that period, WEG expanded its footprint in central Mexico by more than 24,000 square meters to strengthen its U.S.-oriented production capacity.

This reconfiguration is driven not only by tariffs but also by Brazil’s significant role in the continental production chain. Mexico and the United States rely heavily on its industry: the former for imports of vehicles and auto parts, steel inputs, livestock, and agricultural products—especially soy and other oilseeds; the latter for aerospace and agribusiness goods—sugar, coffee, ethanol, juices, and pulps—as well as semi-finished iron and steel, and strategic minerals such as asbestos, alumina, clay, and niobium, essential to the metallurgical, tech, and defense industries.

That interdependence explains why, even amid tariff tensions and trade uncertainty that are slowing down some capital flows, Brazilian companies are choosing to move closer rather than farther away. In July, the Brazil–Mexico Chamber of Commerce confirmed that at least 42 companies plan to enter the Mexican market for the first time. The flow is not unusual—given that, on average, for every Mexican company investing in Brazil, 21 Brazilian firms are seeking to establish operations in Mexico. Yet, it reinforces Mexico’s standing as an industrial hub, driven by both domestic demand and export capacity.

“The commercial relationship between Mexico, Brazil, and the United States has always been triangular,” explains José Ignacio Martínez, coordinator of the Laboratory for Analysis in Trade, Economy, and Business. That triad operates on shared production chains—especially in steel and automotive—that are assembled in one country and finished in the other, depending on what is most convenient for producing, transporting, and exporting at any given moment.

In that balance, “while the tariffs would be impacting Mexico, logistics costs would be impacting Brazil. This is where a great opportunity for trade creation between Mexico and Brazil can emerge.” In fact, “paradoxically, the tariffs imposed by Trump on Mexico and Brazil could lead to a strong complementarity between both economies and open the door to a common strategy from the global south.”

Today, about 716 Brazilian firms operate in Mexico. Their dynamism, however, is measured not only by presence but by diversification.

According to Mexico’s Economy Secretary, between mid‑2024 and 2025, the number of companies with active foreign direct investment (FDI) from Brazil grew by 22%, surpassing 650. But that increase didn’t translate into more capital—it reflected an expansion of internal structures. Over the same period, total investment declined 41% year-over-year, primarily due to fewer new projects and lower profit reinvestment. The gap suggests that many of the newly registered entities were not newcomers, but rather subsidiaries, affiliates, or operational vehicles of existing groups that reorganized their presence—even through mergers—without incurring major expenditures, signaling more of an operational reengineering than a speculative push. Long-term trends reinforce this view: over the past five years, Brazilian FDI in Mexico has grown at a compound annual rate of 3.6%, primarily driven by reinvestment from established companies.

Even so, strategic sectors—such as basic chemicals and electrical equipment tied to the aerospace industry, exempt from the harshest tariffs—doubled their investment compared to the previous year. That exception is not minor: it reveals where the real opportunity lies, in a context where Brazilian exports to Mexico and the United States have grown at real compound annual rates of 5% and 8%, proving that—beyond political noise—structural demand for certain goods remains firm and will continue to strengthen productive integration among Mexico, Brazil, and the United States.

To explore the business movement behind this expansion—and access the complete list of Brazilian companies active in Mexico’s industrial real estate market—visit SiiLA Market Analytics or contact us at contacto@siila.com.mx.