Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors to end US production

CHICAGO (AP) – Mitsubishi Motors confirmed Friday that it plans to stop production at its only U.S. factory and sell the plant in central Illinois.

The Japanese automaker reviewed its global supply chain and decided it was necessary to end production at the plant, which has more than 1,200 workers, and find a buyer, said Dan Irvin, the company’s North American spokesman. The announcement came after Japanese media reported that the automaker had decided to end production in the U.S. to focus on Asian markets.

Irvin said Mitsubishi’s board will soon make a formal decision on what will happen to the plant in Normal, Illinois, about 100 miles southwest of Chicago. Company officials hope to find a buyer that will maintain the factory’s employment.

Annual production at the plant, which makes the Outlander SUV, has fallen to 64,000 vehicles from more than 200,000 in 2002. The company sold only 82,000 vehicles in the U.S. last year – less than 1 percent of the total market.

Japan’s leading business newspaper, the Nikkei, reports that Mitsubishi would be the first major Japanese automaker to end production in both the U.S. and Europe. The company has built a plant in Thailand, bought one from Ford in the Philippines, and is building one in Indonesia.

Illinois state Sen. Bill Brady, whose district includes Normal, said he and other state officials were already working on a plan to find another manufacturer to buy the factory.

“We are going to do everything we can to make sure people know that Mitsubishi no longer needs the facility but that this is a facility that has a very efficient, world-class workforce and a supplier network that’s second to none,” he said.

Brady also said he has talked to Mitsubishi officials, who have told him the company’s decision has nothing to do with the labor force and have assured him that “Mitsubishi’s effort to sell the plant “will not be about getting top dollar for the sale but about doing the right thing.”

He said concerns about the plant have long centered on production, and the hope is now that the news of Mitsubishi’s plans “may bring the opportunity to more fully use the capacity of the plant and bring more jobs.”