Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp will stop making cars in the US as it looks to shore up its business in Asia, a report said yesterday.
The leading Nikkei Shimbun said Mitsubishi is to halt production of Outlander SUVs at a factory in Illinois, and may sell the site to another automaker.
Further details would be announced later, the Nikkei added.
Kyodo News also reported the plant will close, citing unnamed sources.
ILLINOIS PLANT
The Illinois factory started operations in 1998 and has 1,250 employees, according to the company, which did not confirm the report.
Annual production at the factory has fallen to 64,000 vehicles from more than 200,000 in 2002.
The company sold only 82,000 vehicles in the US last year, less than 1 percent of the total market.
“Mitsubishi Motors Corporation in the US has always been considering optimizing its global production structure including [the Illinois factory],” it said in a statement. “However, there has been no decision made regarding it at this moment.”
Mitsubishi has been hit by a decline in US car sales and the plant manufactured just 60,000 vehicles last year, about half its capacity, public broadcaster NHK reported.
The company, which withdrew from production in Europe three years ago, will be the first major Japanese automaker to stop building in both the US and Europe, it added.
Mitsubishi has been actively investing in Asia, building a production site in Thailand and buying a factory in the Philippines from Ford Motor Co.
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