Retooling a Maquiladora Line: Decisions Only Owners Make

Retooling a maquiladora line is good news: a new product, a new customer, a better process. The machines that come out of the old line still need a few decisions that only the owner can make, about what stays, where the decisions get made, and who signs off before an asset leaves the books.

For the whole path from the plant floor to the final sale, see our page on maquiladora surplus.

Why maquiladora retooling decisions belong to the owner

A line change touches more people than it first appears to. The plant manager is bringing the new line up. The Mexican entity holds the IMMEX program and its Anexo 24 records. The US parent holds the fixed asset register and the capital plan. Finance, treasury, maintenance and purchasing each see a different part of the same machines.

Most of the work that follows can rest with others. The decisions that shape it cannot. When the owner settles them early and shares the answers, every team works from the same plan, and the line change stays what it should be: a step forward.

Decision one: what stays in the company

The best buyer for a good machine is often your own company. A vertical turning center leaving one plant may be the capacity another plant has been asking for. A bridge crane coming down may be exactly the span a new building needs.

A few plain questions settle it. Does the receiving plant run the same control, Fanuc, Mazatrol, Siemens or another? Does the work envelope fit its parts? Does its building have the power, usually 440 V or 480 V, 3-phase, 60 Hz on both sides of the border? And where is the receiving plant? A plant in Mexico may take the machine on a virtual transfer between IMMEX programs, while a plant in the United States takes it on a retorno and a US entry. Our guide to IMMEX fixed assets covers each route.

Give your own plants a set window to claim what they want, then let the rest move on. A window keeps good machines in the company without leaving anything waiting on the floor.

Decision two: where the decisions get made

The hardest part of a line change is rarely the machines. It is that every decision about them seems to need the plant: buyers who want to see the equipment, teams who need to inspect it, and duties that would be owed before anyone has looked.

The simplest answer is to move the decisions away from the floor. Machines leaving the line go straight into a US customs bonded warehouse in Texas, on a retorno with no Mexican duty and no US duty while they wait. Buyers inspect them there instead of in Mexico. And each asset is recorded in AssetMan™, where corporate, finance and the plants decide what is redeployed, sold or held, while the new line comes up undisturbed.

If the program itself is ending, there is an IMMEX close-out period for fixed assets. Our guide to IMMEX fixed assets covers it.

Decision three: who signs off

Before an asset leaves the books, someone has to say yes. In a maquiladora that is often two people: one at the Mexican entity, for the IMMEX record and the pedimento, and one at the US parent, for the fixed asset register.

Settle three things before the first machine moves:

• who approves which assets stay, move or sell
• who confirms each asset tag and serial number against the register
• who receives the record of what left, so finance can close each asset out

Your agente aduanal and your US customs broker belong on that list too, because they file the entries on each side. When sign-off is clear, approvals take days instead of weeks, and nothing waits at the border for a signature.

Decision four: what the new line keeps from the old one

Some of what comes out of the old line belongs in the new one, and much of it has years left in it. Decide early what stays, so it is not sold with the machines and bought new again a month later.

Keep each machine's accessories with it as well. Chucks, tool holders, fixtures, manuals and spare parts are worth more with the machine they fit than in a pile on their own.

What does not stay has value too. Everything in the plant can go in one sale, scrap metal included, which keeps the paperwork to one list and one set of entries.

Handing the rest to one partner

Once those four decisions are made, the rest is the work itself: removal, transport, the border, storage and sale. That work is ours to plan with you, so your people stay on the new line. Everything is inspected, photographed and recorded as it arrives, so the people deciding in AssetMan™ see exactly what buyers will see, and no one has to walk the old line again.

Removal and transport can be your own team or our crews and fleet, depending on the job and how fast it has to move. We have three warehouses in Del Rio, on the border across from Ciudad Acuña, and two in Comfort, with over 200,000 square feet under roof and 50 acres of outdoor storage, including bonded US Customs warehouses.

If building the list of what is coming out sounds like a lot while a new line is coming up, we understand. That is why we offer AssetReady™: we agree on a definition up front, then qualify everything that meets it.

Questions sellers ask

What happens to old machinery when a maquiladora retools a line?

It is kept for the new line, sent to another plant, imported definitively for another use in Mexico, or returned abroad and sold. Machines returned to a US bonded warehouse close their IMMEX record and wait there with US duties deferred.

Who should approve the sale of maquiladora equipment?

Usually two people: one at the Mexican entity for the IMMEX record and the pedimento, and one at the US parent for the fixed asset register.

Can machines move from a plant in Mexico to a plant in the United States?

Yes. The machine leaves Mexico on a retorno and is entered into the United States at your plant, or held in a bonded warehouse until the plant is ready. Your customs broker confirms the duty for each one.

Do we have to sell the whole line at once?

No. You can keep what the new line needs, send other plants what they want, and sell the rest in one lot.

Can the old line keep running until the new one is ready?

Often, yes. Machines can stay in production until the day they come out, and move into bond right after. A list made in advance is what makes that possible.

When you are ready

If you have one lot to sell, AssetRecovery™ makes one cash offer for all of it. If surplus keeps coming from plants in Mexico, the United States or both, AssetMan™ gives you one accountable partner for every site. Either way, it starts at assetman.kingsurplus.com with a call from a King Surplus rep, or at 830-995-5000.