DETROIT — Toyota said on Thursday that it would resume construction of a Mississippi plant that had been suspended 18 months ago because of the recession.
And in another sign that auto sales have improved considerably, General Motors said it would skip the annual summer shutdown at all but two of its United States plants to keep up with demand.
Toyota said its $1.3 billion plant in Blue Spring, Miss., was scheduled to begin building Corolla compact cars, not sport utility vehicles or hybrid cars as previously planned, in the fall of 2011.
Toyota said it would hire 2,000 people, the same number of jobs it originally planned to create at the plant, which is 90 miles southeast of Memphis.
Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi was scheduled to meet company executives on Thursday at the plant, which was 90 percent finished in December 2008 when Toyota halted the project amid plunging sales nationwide.
"Toyota appreciates the patience of Governor Barbour and all Mississippians, but we first needed to fully utilize our existing facilities as the economy slowed," Yoshimi Inaba, the president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor North America, said in a statement.
"Now it’s time to fulfill Toyota’s promise in Mississippi," the statement said. "Toyota remains committed to making vehicles where we sell them and to maintaining a substantial manufacturing presence in North America."
GM said that operating nine of its 11 United States assembly plants for two extra weeks would allow it to build 56,000 additional vehicles. Some temporary workers might be hired.
The only plants that GM does not plan to keep running are in Lordstown, Ohio, which will soon start building the new Chevrolet Cruze compact car, and in Shreveport, La., which builds midsize pickup trucks and is scheduled to close by 2012.
The Detroit automakers have traditionally shut their plants in early July to prepare for building the next year’s models.
"This move will help buyers waiting for high-demand products such as the Buick LaCrosse, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia," Mark Reuss, the president of GM North America, said in a statement. "Our manufacturing teams are taking creative approaches to increase production and reduce the wait times for our dealers and customers."
Toyota said the Mississippi plant’s opening would mean "nearly all" Corollas sold in North America would be built in the United States and Canada. Some production of the Corolla, one of Toyota’s top-selling models, was moved to Japan in April, when Toyota closed a plant in Fremont, Calif., where it was assembled.
The California plant had been a joint venture of Toyota and General Motors, but GM withdrew after its bankruptcy filing last year, and Toyota said it could not operate the plant without a partner. Toyota now plans to build electric cars there in partnership with another automaker, Tesla.
Toyota initially planned to build sport utility vehicles at the Mississippi plant, then in mid-2008 said it would build Prius hybrid cars there after a surge in gas prices and demand for fuel-efficient vehicles. Toyota on Thursday did not address whether it would eventually build the Prius, which is imported from Japan, in North America.
Toyota said the building was "essentially complete" and that most of the remaining work involves equipment installation. About 60 people already work at the plant’s administration office.
Source