Chrysler Offers $72-Million Investment for Machining Plant

Chrysler Group LLC reports it will invest $72 million to install new machinery and tooling at its Toledo Machining Plant, to produce front-wheel and rear-wheel drive torque converters and steering columns. The investment is contingent on a package of incentives from the State of Ohio, still being negotiated, according to the automaker.

The plant in Perrysburg, Ohio, manufacturers steering columns that are shipped to numerous assembly plants in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela, and it produced torque converters that are supplied to Chrysler transmission plants in the U.S., Mexico, and England.

The new equipment and tooling installations at Toledo would begin late in the third quarter of this year and be completed in the first quarter of 2013. Chrysler linked the investment program to 640 hourly and salaried jobs that would be retained at the plant.

Chrysler’s new torque converters, along with its new eight-speed rear-wheel drive transmission nine-speed front-wheel drive transmission are critical aspects of the automaker’s fuel-economy strategy in forthcoming models.

“We welcome this investment in Toledo Machining as it is an acknowledgement of the high-quality components that have been produced by our skilled workforce for many years,” stated Scott Garberding, senior vice president and head of manufacturing, Chrysler Group LLC. “Being able to bring new technology to this facility secures its long-term future.”