GM invests $1.45b in US

General Motors is spending no time mourning the passing of Holden. Less than a week after the US giant announced the closure of its Australian manufacturing operations by the end of 2017, it has announced a $1.45 billion investment across five domestic US plants.

GM plans to invest $US1.3 billion upgrading two assembly plants and three powertrain plants. It said the investment would “create or retain 1000 jobs”. Around 7500 work in the plants currently.

The investment was announced by ex-Holden boss, GM’s president of North America, Mark Reuss.

Part of the investment is re-tooling to produce a new 10-speed automatic transmission and a new V6 engine.

Holden currently builds V6 engines for its own local and exported products at its Fishermens Bend facility in Port Melbourne. That plant will close in 2016.

The investment will include $US493.4 million at GM’s powertrain plant at Romulus in Michigan, including $US343.4 million for equipment to produce an all-new 10-speed automatic transmission and $150 million to increase capacity of a previously announced new V6 engine.

Also included is $US 600 million to upgrade its Flint Assembly facility (including a new paint shop), $121 million at Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly for a “logistics optimization center”, $US30.6 million at Toledo Transmission Operations for increased capacity for an existing six-speed transmission and tooling for a new variant, and $US29.2 million at Bedford Castings, which includes $US22.6 million to produce components for the 10-speed transmission and $6.6 million to produce components for an existing six-speed transmission.

GM has announced investments of $US10.1 billion in its North American operations since 2009, including $US2.8 billion this year alone.

The car-maker claims it has created or retained 26,500 US jobs via the above investments.

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