Schneider Electric Adding U.S. Plants in Texas, Mexico

France-based digital automation products manufacturer Schneider Electric will move some manufacturing plants closer to U.S. customers from sites in Europe and Asia, as it forges ahead with a regional manufacturing strategy to produce goods closer to where they are sold, according to a May 15 report from The Wall Street Journal.

The news outlet says the strategy is intended to meet increasing demand in North America and to “compete for federal subsidies aimed at expanding manufacturing in the U.S.”

“You have to develop a whole ecosystem of suppliers, service providers, factories, distribution systems, transport guys to be able to support this whole growth journey,” Javed Ahmad, Schneider’s Senior Vice President of Global Supply Chain for North America, told The WSJ.

Schneider will build circuit breakers and electrical panel boards at factories in El Paso, Texas, and Monterrey, Mexico, adding to its 35 factories and distribution centers across North America, according to the newspaper. In addition, the company plans to expand its plant in Tlaxcala, Mexico.

As it builds a local supply chain for materials such as nickel and lithium, the company is working with North American suppliers and encouraging some of its suppliers elsewhere to set up factories in the region, WSJ reported.

Read more about Schneider’s plans here.