General Motors will invest $174 million at its Lansing, MI, Grand River assembly plant to build a second stamping facility to make components for the Cadillac models the automaker builds there as well upcoming production of the Chevrolet Camaro.
GM announced last year plans to bring production of the next-generation Camaro sports coupe and convertible to Lansing from Canada in a move to consolidate output of Sigma-based rear-wheel-drive products. According to a WardsAuto forecast, the next-generation Camaro will come in 2016 as a ’17 model.
The new stamping plant will create or retain 145 jobs, GM says. The 225,000-sq.-ft. (29,900-sq.-m)facility will start production in 2016 and the automaker expects stamping the parts locally will save $14 million annually in material-handling costs.
The latest investment at Lansing comes on the heels of the construction of a $44.5 million logistics center at Grand River, which comes online in 2015. GM also recently invested $88 million in the plant to build the latest-generation Cadillac CTS large sports sedan and $190 million for production of the newly released Cadillac ATS compact sports sedan.
In nearby Delta Twp., the automaker will spend $37 million to upgrade that assembly plant’s manufacturing capabilities. The plant builds GM’s large CUVs.
“Lansing Grand River Assembly is known for the high quality of its work and the flexible manufacturing that has been a trademark since it opened,” GM North America Manufacturing Manager Christine Sitek says in a statement. “Today’s announcement demonstrates GM’s commitment to strengthening key plant capabilities related to quality and efficiency.”
Lansing Grand River, located 90 miles (145 km) northwest of Detroit, opened in 2001 with the introduction of the first-generation Cadillac CTS and has received a number of third-party quality and productivity awards. It is GM’s second-newest assembly plant in the U.S.
Last week GM decided to idle the plant for three weeks ending Sept. 8 to reduce growing inventories of the CTS and ATS, which stood at 215 and 152 days’ supply, respectively, at the end of last month.
Cadillac’s U.S. sales were steaming ahead last year with introduction of new product, rising 22.1% to 180,571 units from 147,848 in 2012, according to WardsAuto data. But through the first half of this year, Cadillac deliveries dropped 1.0% to 82,068 against an industry that was ahead 4.0% and a luxury market up 7.0%. The brand’s share of the U.S. luxury segment at the end of June stood at 8.4% compared with 9.1% year-ago.
