New Keihin factory set to open this month
Chrysler plans 2010 opening of Marysville plant

By NICHOLAS DESHAIS
Times Herald

With fears the country slowly is sliding into recession and with the economy shedding more jobs, Blue Water Area residents can take to heart that work on two new factories is progressing.

"Within the next 10 days we'll be walking into the building," said Dave Thomas, vice president of Keihin Michigan Manufacturing LLC.

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Keihin announced in April plans to build a plant in Capac. The $22 million 120,000-square-foot plant will start mass production in March. Forty-four people already have been hired, and company officials plan to have 160 people on staff by the year's end.
The plant will manufacture intake manifolds for the Honda Civic and the four-cylinder Accord, as well as the heating, ventilating and air-conditioning units for the Civic.

Thomas said the company plans to make 2,400 manifolds and 800 HVAC units a day.

This is Keihin's fourth plant in America. Thomas said people hoping to work at the plant should apply through MichiganWorks.

In Marysville, things are moving slower at Chrysler's axle plant, which was announced the same time as Keihin.

"We plan to open the plant, in terms of production, in 2010," said Curtrise Garner, spokeswoman for Chrysler.

The foundation for the plant is about one-sixth complete, said Garner, and is expected to be finished by the middle of March.

The company has not set a hiring date but expects to have 900 people working at the new plant. It's unknown how many of those people will come from Chrysler's Detroit Axle Plant.

At full bore, the plant will churn out 1.2 million axles a year.

"The SRT-8 (Dodge Challenger) will be the first to use the axles," Garner said. "There's a possibility that it might go across (Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep)."