General Motors Corporation (GM) announced that it will invest $30 million in its stamping plant in Pontiac, Michigan in order to upgrade tooling and equipment that will, in turn, enhance the plant’s manufacturing capabilities.
The upgrade will include three conventional press lines that are already operating at the plant and installation of two additional presses. With this, Pontiac stamping plant will work as a regional center supporting many other plants.
The Pontiac plant was opened in 1932 and will supply parts for several models including Chevrolet Sonic and the Buick Verano, both launching later this year. The investment will retain 290 jobs at the plant.
In November last year, GM also announced to invest $163.2 million in its Flint and Bay City plants in Michigan and Defiance plant in Ohio in order to boost engine production for its Chevrolet lineups including Chevrolet Volt, Chevrolet Cruze and a new Chevrolet small car.
The latest investment brings GM’s total investment in the U.S. to more than $3.33 billion, creating or retaining more than 8,000 jobs in 22 plants, after emerging from bankruptcy in July last year.
At the beginning of the year, Ford Motor Co. (F) announced that it will invest $400 million for retooling its Kansas City Assembly Plant in Missouri. With this upgrade, the automaker had vowed to retain 3,750 full-time jobs at the plant. The company also plans to roll out a new vehicle from the plant in early 2013 as it will cease manufacturing the Escape sports utility vehicle later this year or in early 2012.
In the fourth quarter of 2010, GM posted a profit of 52 cents per share, exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 5 cents per share. The results excluded net charges of $0.4 billion due to the previously disclosed $0.7 billion loss on the purchase of U.S. Treasury preferred shares.
In absolute terms, the company turned a profit of $510 million during the quarter in sharp contrast to a loss of $3.52 billion in the comparable quarter of 2009 driven by the recovery in the North American and European automotive markets.
The automaker generated revenues of $36.9 billion during the quarter, which was higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $34.9 billion. Unit sales escalated 11% to 2,173 vehicles from 1,952 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2009. The automaker occupied a market share of 11.5% during the quarter, up from 11.4% in the year-ago quarter.
FORD MOTOR CO (F): Free Stock Analysis Report
Zacks Investment Research
