Honda Canada said on Tuesday it would add a second production shift in early 2011 at one of its two assembly plants in Alliston, Ontario, increasing output by 400 to 600 vehicles a day and creating over 400 new jobs.
Local media reports said this was actually the restoration of a shift. The Alliston facility lost about 800 positions when the bottom dropped out of the car industry this past year and Honda eliminated the positions through buyouts and elimination of contract employees, The Barrie Examiner said.
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Honda makes the Civic sedan, Acura MDX sport utility vehicle and Acura ZDX crossover at its Honda Canada Manufacturing Plant 2 north of Toronto.
“We are pleased to be making this announcement as the Canadian economy continues to show signs of recovery,” Honda Canada chief executive Manabu Nishimae said in a statement cited by Reuters.
Last year, over 52% of Honda and Acura vehicles sold in Canada were made at the facility, the company said.
HCM Plant 1 produces the Honda Civic coupe and sedan, as well as the Acura CSX luxury compact sedan. The engine plant produces 1.8-litre 4-cylinder engines for the Civic.
Honda began car sales in Canada in 1973. Plant 1 has been in operation since 1986 and Plant 2 since 1998. Engine production began in 2008.
Honda said it had invested over C$2.6 billion (US$2.5 billion) in the two assembly plants, which have the capacity to produce 390,000 vehicles a year. The engine plant can produce up to 200,000 engines annually.
“We believe, see, that there is a gradual market recovery,” Richard Jacobs, Honda Canada’s senior vice president of corporate affairs, told the Barrie newspaper, “and we foresee the recovery continuing. We’re doing what we need to do now, to be ready for tomorrow.”
About 3,800 people work at Honda’s two car assembly plants and its new engine plant. About one-third of them come from the Barrie area.
Jacobs said Honda has been able to buffer itself somewhat from slumping sales and the company continues to approach cautiously. When the second shift was in full production it produced 400 units. When it comes back online early in 2011, it will only be producing an extra 200 units for a total daily production of 600 units at Plant 2.
“We always want to be prepared,” said Jacobs. “We certainly feel we’ve come through the worst. Things aren’t back to the way they were . . . it’s not going to happen overnight.”
While the original plant now concentrates on Civic production, the second plant was constructed to adapt to demand, allowing both car and truck production, the paper said. Some models previoulsy built in Canada are now made in Honda’s US plants.
The Barrie paper noted that Honda’s news followed an announcement by General Motors Canada on Friday that it would recall more than 700 laid-off workers and hire 70 new employees at two southern Ontario assembly plants.
