The leather manufacturing sector in the Mexican state of Guanajuato is on course to return to pre-covid levels of revenues in 2022, according to the president of local tanning industry body Cicur, Ricardo Muñoz Arrona, writes Leatherbiz In recent comments to local media, Mr Muñoz confirmed that Guanajuato still has 600 companies, of all sizes, in its leather industry, many of them based in and around the city of León. In 2021, these companies achieved a combined turnover of around $1.6 billion, up by 23% from $1.3 billion the year before. However, the figure for 2020 represents a decline of 26% compared to 2019. Ricardo Muñoz said he was optimistic about achieving figures close to those of the time before the pandemic this year because sales and production levels are up. The main reason for this optimism is the ongoing success of Mexico’s automotive industry, which now absorbs 70% of the leather that Guanajuato’s tanneries produce, the Cicur president said. His counterpart at the Guanajuato Automotive Cluster, Rolando Alaniz Rosales, has confirmed that 78% of the materials in the seats that local car manufacturers put into the vehicles they assemble come from Mexico. He said: “Our assembly plants need seats, all the seats are produced in Mexico and all the leather they use is sourced locally.”