January 10, 2012
DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) - Nissan will build a new plant in Mexico to reinforces its North American capacity, chief executive officer Carlos Ghosn said Monday.
"Yes we will increase our capacity in Mexico," Ghosn told reporters on the sidelines of the Detroit auto show.
Nissan is also planning to boost production at its US plants in Tennessee and Mississippi, which are running at near-capacity, he said.
The new plant, which will reportedly have a capacity of 600,000 vehicles and could more than double Nissan's Mexican production, will be Nissan's third factory in the country.
The second largest Japanese automaker is likely to use one of the lines at the planned factory for joint production with Daimler AG, the Nikkei reported last month.
Ghosn declined to provide further details about the plant, but said a fuller announcement will come soon after it receives approval from company directors.
"It's not a question of months, it's a question of weeks," he said.
Nissan is looking to increase production in cost-competitive nations and turn them into regional export bases.
Nissan also plans to double its production capacity in China to two million units by late 2015 in an effort to achieve global sales of 7.2 million units by the end of fiscal 2016.
