Chihuahuan Frontier

Ninety officials from 40 American, French, German and Canadian aerospace suppliers visited Chihuahua City this week to explore business opportunities, as the city is developing an aerospace cluster where world-class companies as Safran Group, Zodiac, Cessna and Hawker Beechcraft already have a presence.

The tour is an initiative of Safran Group, the Chihuahua State government, and Promexico, a federal economic development agency.

Safran Group operates Labinal, a company with two plants and an engineering + design center in Chihuahua, and is looking to have suppliers close to its operations in the city.

Labinal Chihuahua designs, manufactures and assembles circuit boards and connectors for customers like Airbus, Boeing, Bomberdier, Hawker Beechraft and Dassault, among others.

The French company employs 2,800 workers in the city.

The officials from the 40 aerospace suppliers had business meetings during the two-day event at Hotel Westin Soberano to explore potencial investments and alliances.

They also toured plants of aerospace companies already in the city to get first-hand knowledge of what the city has to offer.

One of the main reasons many aerospace-sector companies have established operations here is Chihuahua's High Technology Training Center (Cenaltec), which trains technicians in specialized manufacturing skills.