What is happening with Yazaki in Latin America is not a series of isolated incidents: it is the visible symptom of operational, labor, regulatory, and financial pressures that now converge on one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers, reshaping its presence in the region and reminding us that even giants yield when those forces accumulate.

So far this year, the company has closed operations in Uruguay and scaled back activity in the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Guanajuato, Jalisco, and San Luis Potosí. At the same time, the U.S. government activated—for the second time—the USMCA’s MLRR mechanism, which allows an investigation into whether a company is undermining workers’ labor rights, and ordered a temporary suspension of customs processing for products exported from its plant in León, which continues operating as it moves through its scheduled shutdown.

At least in Mexico, the adjustment did not begin this year. While in 2022–2024 Yazaki had been modifying its industrial footprint by absorbing nearly 55,000 sqm across different parts of the country, in 2025 it released more than 40,000 sqm and added only 6,300 sqm more in Aguascalientes, according to SiiLA and company data. Even with a national inventory of nearly 200,000 sqm —and considering even its most recent move to occupy roughly 6,800 sqm of offices in FIBRA Monterrey’s Neoris–General Electric building— the trend shows a clear turn: from expansion to a gradual contraction of space.

Although the official reasons behind each move have been different—space efficiency in Ciudad Juárez, the cut of 400 positions in San Luis Río Colorado, the sublease of its facility in Guadalajara, and the shutdown process in León due to a geological fault—the trajectory aligns with what the company did in Uruguay in January, when it closed its Colonia and Las Piedras plants after 18 years of operation because of high operating costs, lack of competition and labor conflicts. Together, these adjustments point to a reorganization of capacity and location that spans multiple markets and responds to various operational pressures.

To this operational adjustment, a labor front is added—one that is neither minor nor new. In 2023, the León plant had already been flagged for alleged union interference, forcing Yazaki to sign a neutrality declaration and undergo ILO-supervised training. The recurrence in 2025—with more serious accusations and an immediate trade sanction—reveals that the labor conflict is not an isolated episode, just as labor disputes in Uruguay were part of the shutdown of two plants. The simultaneity of these episodes reveals a persistent labor issue, not confined to a single country and evident across contexts.

In both Mexico and Uruguay, labor conflicts have coexisted with operational adjustments at a time when labor costs and pressure for efficiency occupy a central place. That point of friction sheds light on another key part of this story: the evolution of revenue.

In the cold mirror of Yazaki’s figures, the picture is less expansive than the real 45%¹ jump in revenue between 2020 and 2024 suggests, because that increase was not sustained: the growth pace continuously slowed after 2022. Outside Japan—where nearly two-thirds of its sales are concentrated—revenue fell from double-digit increases through that year to barely 1% growth in 2024; and in Japan, the variation was virtually zero last year. The coincidence between both markets reveals a clear pattern: Yazaki is reporting more yen, yes, but with less momentum. The data point to a simultaneous slowdown in its two operating fronts, rather than to a phase of expansion.

Thus far, Yazaki’s story in Latin America is not that of a giant collapsing, but of one discovering that sustaining a presence is as tricky as growing it—and that the line between adjusting and retreating is becoming thinner each year.

Figures, context, and analysis like this are part of SiiLA’s ongoing monitoring of the transformation of the industrial market in Latin America. You can find more reports on SiiLA REsource or write to us at contacto@siila.com.mx.

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¹ The “real” figures were obtained by deflating Yazaki’s nominal revenue with Japan’s Consumer Price Index (CPI, e-Stat), following standard practice for yen-denominated series. The company does not publish inflation-adjusted values or detailed regional breakdowns; the calculations are based exclusively on publicly available information.