DETROIT — The vital signs are improving for Detroit’s automakers.
General Motors Co. may reopen some shuttered factories because it can’t produce four new vehicles fast enough, and Chrysler is set to hire more engineers and product development workers as both companies foresee improved U.S. auto sales this year.
Mark Reuss, GM’s North American president, told reporters at the Detroit auto show Monday that factories building the Chevrolet Equinox, GMC Terrain and Cadillac SRX crossover vehicles and the Buick LaCrosse sedan are at or near capacity and can’t satisfy demand.
Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, who also serves as CEO of Italian automaker Fiat Group SpA, said his company doesn’t have enough people to revamp its U.S. product line and soon will be hiring temporary and other workers.
Both moves are signs of increased confidence that the U.S. auto market bottomed out last year and will gradually rise in 2010. They also indicate general economic improvement nationwide.
Overall, U.S. auto sales fell 21 per cent in 2009, a year that saw both GM and Chrysler enter and exit bankruptcy protection when they ran out of money. Both companies are receiving government aid.
But sales were up 15 per cent in December over the same month last year, giving automakers hope of a gradual improvement this year. Industry analysts predict that automakers will sell roughly 1 million more vehicles this year than last.
Reuss mentioned an idled factory in Spring Hill, Tenn., as a candidate for reopening, but stopped short of saying any plants would be restarted.
He will meet with GM’s manufacturing and sales executives next week to see if they can figure out how to squeeze more vehicles out of the existing plants for the short term.
For the long term, he said he doesn’t like GM to have factories idled. The company has closed 14 factories in the past two years as it struggled through bankruptcy protection, and it has placed the idled Spring Hill and Janesville, Wis., plants on standby in case they are needed.
“We’ve got some plants that I’d like to allocate product to,” Reuss said, adding that Spring Hill was a very good factory that is versatile enough to build several models.
GM had only a 13-day supply of the Equinox and 18 days of the Terrain at the end of December. Both crossovers are equipped with four-cylinder engines that can get up to 32 mpg on the highway.
GM has a 25-day supply of the SRX, a new Cadillac crossover, and 54 days worth of the LaCrosse, a new Buick luxury sedan, according to Ward’s AutoInfoBank.
Also Monday, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne says the automaker will start hiring production workers again if its sales begin to meet the company’s projections. He didn’t give a timeframe for hiring.
He also said Chrysler is revamping its models and will need more engineering and development workers, possibly starting with temporary workers.
“We just don’t have the manpower,” he said.