This article analyzes the changes in the Chilean manufacturing industry during the period 1979-2004. Main changes are related to the processes of external openness and internal modification of ownership structures and major manufacturing firms. The main output is a strong process of industrial growth that, moreover, is associated to a strong increasement of industrial employment. However, some of the structural traits of the previous industrial model were maintained for a long time. The most clear would be the diversity among domestic market oriented industries and exporting ones. This article also analyzes how, after the crisis of the late nineties, most of the manufacturing sectors, which were still oriented to the domestic market, developed important export competencies. The structural model outlined in the seventies would be culminated after this change. However, the overall transformation of the manufacturing model required more than 35 years.