Short answer
Mexico's public record of factories is DENUE, the national directory of establishments published by INEGI. Testigo holds 79,382 manufacturing plants from the 2026-05-20 edition, with IMMEX, PROSEC and the emissions register attached by company name.
Key facts
- Registry
- DENUE (Directorio Estadístico Nacional de Unidades Económicas)
- Publisher
- INEGI, the national statistics office
- Edition read
2026-05-20- One row is
- One establishment at one address
- Manufacturing rows in the file
- 656,617
- On Testigo
- 79,382. Loaded so far: 6 or more staff
- Tax ID in the file
- None
- Licence
- INEGI terms of free use. Reuse is allowed, including commercial use, with the credit "Fuente: INEGI, DENUE"
DENUE: what it is and who publishes it
DENUE is a statistical directory, not a legal register. INEGI, the national statistics office, lists every economic unit it finds, one row per establishment. A company with three plants has three rows.
INEGI publishes one national file for manufacturing, the units whose activity code starts with 31, 32 or 33. The edition Testigo read is dated 2026-05-20 and holds 656,617 establishments. The file's own metadata says the directory is updated once a year.
Most of those rows are very small workshops: 577,235 report 0 to 5 staff. Testigo holds 79,382 so far. The rule is on the coverage page.
INEGI asks that reuse does not suggest an official position of INEGI. Testigo's counts and matches are Testigo's own work on INEGI's file.
Which fields exist, and which do not
DENUE manufacturing file, all rows
| Field | In DENUE | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes | The trade name of the establishment. |
| Legal name | 12.4% of rows | INEGI leaves it empty for natural persons, to protect confidentiality. Larger plants usually have it. |
| Activity | Yes, every row | A six-digit code in SCIAN, the Mexican version of the North American classification. |
| Size | Yes, every row | A staff band, from 0 a 5 personas to 251 y más personas. Not an exact headcount. |
| Address and postal code | Yes | The address of the establishment itself. |
| Coordinates | Yes, every row | Latitude and longitude of the establishment. |
| Phone | 41.3% of rows | As published by INEGI. |
| 11.1% of rows | More common among larger plants. | |
| Website | 3.8% of rows | More common among larger plants. |
| Tax ID (RFC) | No | DENUE does not publish it. |
| Start date | No | The column fecha_alta is the date the unit entered the directory. It is not a founding date. |
| Legal status | No | There is no status column. |
What "active" means in Mexico
DENUE lists active units only, and it has no status column. A row means INEGI counted the establishment as operating when it built that edition. It does not mean the company is in good legal or tax standing.
Because the directory is updated once a year, a plant that opened or closed after the edition date will not show the change until the next edition.
The tax ID: RFC
The Mexican tax ID is the RFC. A company's RFC has 12 characters. A natural person's has 13. The tax authority, SAT, keys all of its public lists by RFC.
No Mexican plant source publishes the RFC. DENUE does not have it. The IMMEX and PROSEC directories do not have it either. That is the main limit of the Mexican record: the plant sources and the tax lists share no key.
The official lists, and how they fit
Mexico publishes several lists that say something about a company. Testigo holds 10 of them. They fall in two groups: lists Testigo can attach to a plant, and lists it cannot.
Lists attached to plant records
| List | Publisher | Edition | What a row is | How it is matched |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IMMEX directory | Secretaría de Economía | 2026-08-31 | One export manufacturing programme: 5,852 in this edition, with status Autorizado or Suspendido and a type. | Exact company name, with the legal form removed. The record says whether the postal code also matched. |
| PROSEC directory | Secretaría de Economía | 2026-08-31 | One sector programme: 3,932 in this edition, with its sector codes. | The same rule as IMMEX. |
| RETC, the emissions and transfers register | SEMARNAT | 2026-01-05 | One establishment that reported regulated substances for 2024: 2,083 in manufacturing. | Exact company name, same state and same municipality. |
A RETC entry is independent evidence that a plant operated that year: the plant itself reported to the environment ministry. It carries an establishment number, the NRA, which the record shows.
SAT lists Testigo holds but cannot attach to a plant
| List | Edition | Companies held | What it names |
|---|---|---|---|
| Article 69-B | 2026-08-31 | 11,241 | Taxpayers SAT presumes issued invoices for operations that did not exist, with a status for each. |
| Article 69-B Bis | 2026-09-23 | 3 | Improper transfer of tax losses. |
| Article 69: no localizados | 2026-07-01 | 14,059 | Taxpayers SAT lists as not located. |
| Article 69: sello digital sin efectos | 2026-07-01 | 36,016 | Taxpayers whose digital invoicing seal was cancelled. |
| Article 69: créditos firmes | 2026-07-01 | 62,944 | Taxpayers with final tax debts. |
| Article 69: créditos exigibles | 2026-07-01 | 1,671 | Taxpayers with enforceable tax debts. |
| Article 69: sentencias condenatorias | 2026-07-01 | 253 | Taxpayers with a conviction, as SAT lists them. |
The reason is simple. Two companies can share a name. Matching a tax list by name would put a serious flag on the wrong plant. SAT states no licence for these files. It does state that the lists are public.
How to search Mexico on Testigo
- Search by what the plant makesType a product, a process or a material in the Mexico search. All words must match.
- Narrow by state and sizeFilter by state, sector and staff band. Mexico is the one country here with coordinates on every row, so every result has an exact position.
- Open the recordEach line shows its source and edition. With a free account you also see the address, the contacts INEGI publishes and the IMMEX, PROSEC and RETC entries.
- Or browse by activityThe Mexico directory has 284 pages, one per manufacturing activity, each with its count.
What is not checked
- Tax standing. Without an RFC no SAT list can be tied to a plant.
- Certificates, except what a plant names on its own website. That is the plant's claim, not a confirmation.
- Capacity, quality and financial health. No registry here gives them.
- Site visits. Testigo has not visited the plants.
- Plants that work under another company's programme. They will show no IMMEX entry of their own.
Some sources could not be read. The file of environmental audit certificates from PROFEPA refused the download. The SAT page of companies in the IVA and IEPS scheme dates from 2018 and no current edition was found. Neither is on Testigo.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a public list of all manufacturers in Mexico?
Yes. INEGI publishes DENUE, a national directory of establishments, with one file for manufacturing. It gives the name, address, coordinates, activity code and staff band of each establishment. It does not give a tax ID, a founding date or a legal status, and it is updated once a year.
Can I check a Mexican plant against the SAT 69-B list by name?
You can try, but a name match is not safe. Two companies can share a name, and the list is keyed by RFC. Testigo reads the SAT lists by RFC only. Ask the plant for its RFC and check the list with it. The guide to the 69-B list explains each status.
Does an IMMEX entry mean a plant exports?
It means the company holds an export manufacturing programme from the Secretaría de Economía, with the status shown. Testigo matches it by exact company name. A plant with no entry may still export under another company's programme, for example through a shelter company, so a missing entry proves nothing.
Why does Testigo not hold every row of DENUE?
Most rows in the manufacturing file are workshops with 0 to 5 staff. Testigo loads the larger establishments first and states the rule on the coverage page, with the count in the source next to the count loaded. The rule changes as more rows are loaded.
Sources
- DENUE, national manufacturing fileINEGI · edition 2026-05-20
- INEGI terms of free useINEGI · edition read 2026-10-03
- Directorio de programas IMMEX and PROSECSecretaría de Economía, SNICE · edition 2026-08-31
- Contribuyentes publicados: artículos 69, 69-B and 69-B BisSAT · edition 2026-08-31
- RETC Verificado, workbook for 2024SEMARNAT · edition 2026-01-05