As the leading provider of comprehensive MRO supply chain services in Mexico, SDM’s solutions include staffing the storerooms and tool cribs through its outsourced program — In-Plant Store®.  Services include managing inventory, sourcing and issuing material, reducing inventory shrinkage, and managing freight and duty costs, as well as OEM critical spare parts. SDM utilizes the latest technologies available to streamline MRO management, including Web-based catalogs, mobile technology, bar coding, and dispensing machines.

• Saving Through International Supplier Network
• Handling Customs
• Helping You Understand NAFTA
• Tightening Control with an Outsourced Program
• Contacting SDM

We use a combination of U.S. and Mexican suppliers to bring you maximum cost savings. Before choosing a supplier, we examine factors like NAFTA restrictions, product quality and price, delivery time, and transportation and importation costs.

• U.S. Supplier Network — We capitalize on the existing contracts our U.S.-based parent company, SDI, holds with a vast network of national suppliers.
• Mexican Supplier Network — Some commodities are better purchased in Mexico, so we maintain a solid supply network there as well.  

Service Maquiladora

SDM's Service Maquiladora allows for the importation of MRO products into Mexico via the (temporary) importation process, which results in no duties or taxes levied against the value of the products being imported. The primary use of the Service Maquiladora is to allow SDM to utilize our customers’ importation charter to import (on a temporary basis) materials that will end up in the finished product. The Pedimento, or importation paperwork, is then transferred to the customer once the MRO/OEM material is issued from the storeroom.

Border Marketing Company

SDM's Border Marketing Company allows goods to be imported on a permanent basis while incurring only minimal duties (usually 0%-5%) levied against the cost of all goods imported (vs. the sales price of the goods). SDM is able to import products on a permanent basis at a significantly lower duty rate than many manufacturing plants in Mexico who typically pay an average duty rate of 12%-20% (on sales price of goods). This permanent importation process allows SDM's customers to benefit from its preferential duty rates, while simultaneously relieving them of the labor-intensive process of importing products and tracking the pedimentos, which is necessary for Mexican customs audits. SDM's Border Marketing Company is granted preferential duties along the border zone and the entire state of Baja, California. The border zone, or franja fronteriza, as it is often referred, is the area up to 25 kilometers south of the border. Through SDM's permanent importation process, customers are removed from the cost and paperwork of this burdensome process and the potential liability of improper tracking of import pedimentos, which can result in substantial fines if not handled properly.

What is NAFTA?

The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, established a free-trade zone in North America and was signed in 1992 by Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Taking effect on January 1, 1994, NAFTA immediately lifted tariffs on the majority of goods produced by the signatory nations. It also calls for the gradual elimination, over a period of 15 years, of most remaining barriers to cross-border investment and to the movement of goods and services among the three countries. Major industries affected include agriculture, automobile and textile manufacturers, telecommunications, financial services, energy, and trucking. NAFTA also provides for labor and environmental cooperation among member countries.

Benefiting from SDM’s expertise

We staff NAFTA experts who are knowledgeable in current regulations and are prepared for any regulation changes with regards to movement and tracking of indirect materials into and out of Mexico. SDM is a registered comercializadora, which gives SDM preferential duty treatment for importation of certain indirect materials, which is not available to general maquiladoras or PITEX companies. SDM assumes the responsibility for complete documentation to NAFTA requirements for our customers. SDM's duties on permanent importations in the Free Trade Zone are less than one percent of the cost of goods.

To address the negative affects of NAFTA Article 303, Mexico created PROSEC, the Program of Sectoral Promotion that effectively lowers to 0% – 7% duties in more than 20 industrial sectors to companies that obtain authorization for this program. SDM takes advantage of this program on behalf of our customers to provide savings on duties which might not otherwise be available.

• In 1985, Mexico launched the PITEX program (Temporary Import Program for Exporters [Programa de Importación Temporal para Producir Artículos de Exportación]), which allows companies established in the country to temporarily import duty-free all machinery, equipment, and material used in their production process, provided that the merchandise previously imported duty-free and later produced in Mexico will be exported within a certain period of time. Currently, Mexico has more than 8,000 companies registered under the program, and during 2001 they imported US$23.6 billion, representing 18 percent of Mexico's total imports.