Chinese firms to invest nearly $1 billion in northern Mexico -state officials

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -A Chinese supplier for Tesla and a Chinese technology company will invest nearly a billion dollars in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon where the automaker is planning a new factory, Nuevo Leon Governor Samuel Garcia said during a trip to Shanghai on Wednesday.

The planned investments include $700 million from Ningbo Tuopu Group and $260 million from Shenzhen H&T Intelligent Control Co., a Nuevo Leon representative said.

Tesla announced in March it would build a large plant in the state, where it already has suppliers, in what Mexican officials described as a more than $5 billion investment.Speaking in a video filmed at Tesla's Shanghai factory, Garcia said Ningbo Tuopu Group was looking to begin production by the end of the year in Nuevo Leon.

The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ningbo Tuopu Group develops shock absorption products and other auto parts.

Ningbo is expected to create some 10,000 jobs, Nuevo Leon officials said.

Tesla has not yet begun construction in Nuevo Leon, and its timeline for starting production is unclear. Its factory in Austin, Texas, is several hours away just north of the U.S.-Mexico border

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"We're very happy because everything seems to indicate that the Nuevo Leon site will be twice as big, at least, as the one in Austin," Garcia said, noting that Tesla already sources batteries, software, computers and other parts from Nuevo Leon.

(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon, Raul Cortes and Kylie Madry; editing by Stephen Eisenhammer)