Transportation
Transportation manufacturing in San Antonio is concentrated in two major product lines: aerospace manufacturing and heavy maintenance, and the manufacturing of motor vehicles and their components. Due to confidentiality restrictions, specific data for the motor vehicles segment could not be obtained. For this reason the estimates for the transportation sector have been divided into aerospace and “all other” components. However, the vast majority of the non-aerospace transportation activity in this region involves parts or products related to motor vehicles; very few boats, railcars or miscellaneous transportation products are made here.
The Increase
The Transportation sector has shown the biggest gains of any sector. It has grown by almost 50% since 2011, and is quite substantially higher than in 2001. A significant portion of this increase reflects the opening of the Toyota plant and its cluster of suppliers in November 2006. But even before these recent developments there was a substantial volume of motor vehicle components and products manufactured in the region.
Aerospace
The Aerospace sector has also grown significantly over time, more than doubling since 2001. This largely reflects the movement of military aircraft maintenance activities at the former Kelly Air Force Base into the private sector, as well as the expansion of such lines of business as custom interiors for executive and head-of-state aircraft. However, the expiration of certain Department of Defense contracts has led to some shrinkage since 2011.
SAMA is the enduring and respected voice of manufacturing in South Texas. TMAC is a proud partner of SAMA in supporting this vital engine of the Texas economy.
Bill Rafferty, South Central Director – Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center (SwRI)