COSTEP Presents Industrial Intelligence Briefing on the Rio South Texas Region Manufacturing Landscape

The Council for South Texas Economic Progress (COSTEP) presented an Industrial Intelligence Briefing revealing the first results of Phase 1 of the Rio South Texas Region Industrial Data System, a digital platform designed to analyze where industry is concentrated, how key sectors are evolving, and why the Rio South Texas region is emerging as a scalable platform for investment.

The system provides a structured mapping of manufacturing processes, key sectors, and distinctive products across the binational region, with the objective of building a more precise diagnosis of the local and regional manufacturing ecosystem. The initiative aims to deliver actionable data that can support economic promotion, supplier development, and investment attraction strategies.

During the presentation, Adam González, CEO of COSTEP, explained that the initiative responds to a recurring challenge in international economic promotion: the lack of consolidated information about what is produced in the region and the industrial capabilities available.

“When we travel to cities in Europe or the northern United States to promote the region for investment, the first questions we receive are: what is produced here? What do you manufacture? Providing that information gives investors a clearer view of the capabilities that exist in this region,” González said.

Strengthening supplier identification and regional coordination

The system also provides a direct benefit to the regional business ecosystem by helping identify local suppliers that were previously difficult to locate due to fragmented information.

“We have encountered cases where companies import parts from other countries even though suppliers capable of manufacturing those components already exist in the same city. The issue is that companies simply did not know those suppliers existed because the information was not centralized,” González noted.

The data collection process combined direct outreach to companies with support from several regional economic development organizations and associations, including INDEX.

COSTEP also clarified the operational definition used in this phase: a manufacturing company is defined as a firm located within the binational region that performs manufacturing activities within its facilities. Operations functioning solely as logistics, distribution, or warehousing centers—even if part of manufacturing corporations—were excluded from the dataset.

The organization emphasized that this report represents the first stage of a long-term effort to consolidate comprehensive information about the region’s manufacturing capacity.

Mapping the regional manufacturing ecosystem

Phase 1 identified 315 manufacturing companies, including:

• 48 companies in South Texas
• 267 companies in northern Tamaulipas

Beyond the headline numbers, the geographic analysis allows stakeholders to identify city-level specializations, understand complementarities across the region, and detect new opportunities for binational industrial growth.

One of the key elements of the briefing was the explanation that the system goes beyond simply counting companies. Instead, it introduces a classification framework that reflects the real complexity of industrial operations.

Under this methodology, companies are categorized based on the manufacturing processes they perform, which expands the dataset from 315 unique companies to 382 company-sector records, since a single facility can operate in multiple industrial segments.

Among the most prevalent manufacturing process categories were:

• Metalworking / Tooling
• Electrical / Electronics
• Plastics / Injection Molding / Molds
• Paper / Packaging / Cardboard
• Textiles / Clothing / Footwear

A second classification analyzes companies according to the industries served by their final products. In this perspective, the leading sectors include:

• Automotive / Autoparts
• Electrical / Electronics
• Home Appliances / White Goods
• Medical Devices
• Aerospace

Data-driven strategy for a binational manufacturing corridor

The Industrial Intelligence Briefing represents the first structured effort to centralize manufacturing intelligence for the binational region in a single platform. The tool provides two strategic advantages: a clearer understanding of industrial specialization by city and a decision-making framework for economic development organizations, educational institutions, and industry leaders seeking to strengthen regional coordination and investment attraction.

The presentation took place at the Pecan Campus of South Texas College, where Ricardo Solís, president of the institution, highlighted the value of the initiative for both the productive and educational sectors.

“This is crucial information to understand trends and where the region is heading, and especially to understand the strengths we have—not only on the U.S. side but also on the Mexican side,” Solís said.

The event was attended by Mary Virginia Hantsch, U.S. Consul General in Matamoros, as well as representatives from several economic development organizations across the region, including Teclo García of Mission EDC, Steven Valdez of Weslaco EDC, Jeffrey Salcedo of Edinburg EDC, Orlando Campos of Harlingen EDC, Mark E. García of the McAllen Foreign Trade Zone, Guillermo Lash of CANACINTRA, René Xavier González of CODEM, and David García Argüelles of the Consejo Coordinador Empresarial de Matamoros, among other business leaders and developers from both sides of the border.

Industrial Data System for the Rio Sur Region of Texas. Presentation and General Results:

http://mexicoindustry.com/other-pages/data-system-presentation-mid-res-020326.pptx