Chemicals lead MEXICO'S economy

Abstract

Those in the Mexican chemical industry like to trace their industry's origins back 400 years or so to the days of the Spanish Conquest, when Hernan Cortes sent three soldiers to the crater of Popocatepetl volcano to search for sulfur to make gunpowder. However, the first real chemical factory, La Viga, wasn't established until the mid-1800's. The really rapid growth of the industry —almost an explosion—has occurred since World War II. All projections call for this rapid postwar pace to continue for the next several years as the country continues to change from an underdeveloped status to a developed one. Thus far, Mexico's gross national product, about $21.6 billion last year, is but a thirty-sixth that of the U.S., although the country has one fourth the area of the U.S. and one fifth the population. For the past 10 years Mexico has enjoyed one of the world's fastest growing economies, with the CNP increasing more ...