Nothing goes wrong in the middle of a scope. Things go wrong at the seams — between design and construction, between civil works and MEP, between the building and the equipment vendor, between the contractor and the authorities. Choosing a delivery model is really a decision about who owns those seams.
What the local default costs a foreign owner
In Mexico the traditional split is the norm: a local design office, then separate contractors for civil, steel, MEP and HVAC. Follow that default and you become the de-facto integrator of four contracts — a role you did not price, staff or agree to.
Authority timelines are not negotiable and not visible from outside. Permits, environmental approval and grid interconnection run on their own calendars and need someone pushing them from week one.
A firm lump sum on a thin brief does not remove your risk. It prices it, and reserves the right to revisit it as variations.
Is this the right fit for your project?
Greenfield plant
From site study through to a plant handed over with test protocols and a closeout dossier.
Brownfield expansion
Construction alongside an operating facility, planned around your shutdown window rather than the other way round.
Plant relocation
Building and utilities prepared for equipment arriving from another country, with the interface to your vendors defined before purchase.
Fit-out of a leased building
Faster start where the process allows it — reviewed against your requirement before the lease is signed.
Sectors we build for: automotive and components, electronics and precision manufacturing, medical devices, food and beverage, pharmaceutical. Our Mexican entity signs Mexican contracts and issues CFDI invoices; CTECP INC signs US projects.
What is in the single contract
Site study and preconstruction
Power, water, geotechnical, earthworks, zoning and a permitting matrix — see site selection and preconstruction.
Engineering
Architectural, structural and MEP design by Mexican registered engineers, including conversion of Chinese or European packages to local codes and NOM.
Permitting
Preparation, submission and follow-through — land use, construction licence, environmental, Protección Civil, CONAGUA where applicable, and CFE interconnection.
Civil works and structure
Foundations, equipment foundations to vendor drawings, industrial flooring specified and measured by zone, steel structure and envelope.
MEP and process utilities
Electrical and medium voltage, HVAC, hydrosanitary and fire protection, compressed air, process water, steam, extraction.
Specialist environments
Cleanrooms, controlled areas and cold rooms, with the testing and documentation the eventual audit or qualification will require.
Commissioning and handover
Test protocols by system, balancing, as-built drawings, material certificates and training for your maintenance team.
Where our scope ends is written down before the contract, not discovered during commissioning — including the interface point with every equipment vendor.
BIM / VDC and reporting an owner abroad can audit
Federated model
Structure, MEP and envelope coordinated in one model, so clashes with crane travel, clear height or rack layout surface as desk observations.
Interface matrix
One row per connection to production equipment — location, parameter, who supplies the last section, who tests, who signs. Agreed before equipment is purchased.
Weekly written reporting
Progress against the baseline programme, with what moved, what did not, and why — in English, Spanish or Chinese.
Project portal and 360° capture
Drawings, RFIs, changes and dated walkthroughs from fixed positions, so remote review is comparison rather than interpretation.
These are what the question "can you manage this remotely?" actually means in practice. The model prevents the rework; the interface matrix prevents the dispute; the reporting means you find out in week six rather than month four.
Projects
Our published project pages state location, scope and status — and where our role was installation scope rather than general contracting, the page says so.
- KBY manufacturing campus, San Luis Potosí — multi-phase, built alongside an operating facility
- Large industrial base, San Luis Potosí
- BMW training centre, Mexico
- All published projects →
Who is responsible for what
CTECP
Engineering, permit coordination, civil works, structure, MEP and process utilities, testing of what we installed, closeout dossier.
Owner
Process definition and equipment data, land, owner-side permits tied to property, and the production equipment.
Utilities (CFE, water operator)
Interconnection approval and works on their side, on their calendar. We prepare, submit and push.
Equipment vendors
Supply, positioning and connection from the interface point in the matrix.
Validation consultant (regulated projects)
Qualification and process validation. We supply the construction evidence; we are not the responsible party for qualification.
On regulated projects we state this plainly: a contractor offering to "hand over a validated plant" is offering something that, in the regulatory framework, belongs to the licence holder.
Verifying us before you engage
- The legal entity that will sign, its RFC and tax standing.
- IMSS registration and REPSE status for the labour we deploy.
- Insurance and bonding, with the issuer.
- A completed project at a named address you can check on satellite imagery.
- The project manager who ran it, and whether they are still with us.
- A visit to a site we are currently building.
Ask every contractor on your list for the same six items. The comparison is more informative than the proposals.
Frequently asked questions
What does turnkey actually mean in a construction contract?
On its own, not much — it is a commercial description, not a delivery model. It signals that you expect to receive something operable, but says nothing about who held design risk. The useful question is which model the contract actually is: design-bid-build, design-build, progressive design-build, CM at risk or EPC. Each puts design risk and the price commitment in a different place.
Is EPC the same as design-build?
No, and the difference matters on industrial projects. Design-build typically delivers the facility. EPC usually also procures process equipment and carries a performance guarantee — the plant has to produce, not merely exist. That determines who owns the risk if the line fails to reach its rate.
Can you coordinate with our equipment vendors and our own engineering team?
Yes, and we ask for it to be set up formally rather than informally. We work from an interface matrix with one row per connection — location, parameter, type of connection, who supplies the last section, who tests and who signs — agreed before equipment is purchased. Our engineering team works in English, Spanish and Chinese.
How do we supervise the project from abroad?
Weekly written reporting against the baseline programme, a project portal holding drawings, RFIs, changes and site records, BIM/VDC coordination output, and dated 360° walkthroughs from fixed positions so that remote review is comparison rather than interpretation. The point is that you find out something slipped in week six, not in month four.
Can you build while our existing plant keeps producing?
Yes — it is a planning problem before it is a construction problem. It requires the sequence, access routes, noise and dust control, utility cut-overs and the shutdown window to be designed into the execution plan from the start, not improvised. Tell us the shutdown windows you can actually offer and we will plan against them.
What if our scope is not fully defined yet?
Then a firm lump sum would be pricing uncertainty rather than removing it. We would rather run a short validation phase — enough design to make the number mean something — and then commit. It is usually cheaper than the risk premium plus the variations.
Which entity signs, and how are invoices issued?
Our Mexican entity signs Mexican projects and issues CFDI invoices; CTECP INC signs US projects. For a programme spanning both, we set out which scope sits with which entity before contract.