Skilled Trades Association, CAW Local 199 St. Catharines (General Motors Unit) | ||||||
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Our auto plants best in NAFTA Jun. 28, 2005. 09:03 AM FROM CANADIAN PRESSLed by the huge General Motors complex in Oshawa., Canada's auto plants continue to be the most productive in North America, but the United States and Mexico are catching up, Scotia Economics says. Automaking productivity in Canada, the number of worker days required to assemble a vehicle, improved by one per cent last year to 2.78 — a 4.4 per cent advantage over U.S. assembly plants and 24 per cent better than Mexico. But the margin had been much higher in 2001, when Canada led U.S. plants by 7.7 per cent and Mexican auto factories by 34 per cent. Productivity figures are compiled by the industry's Harbour Report."General Motors' No.1 plant in Oshawa is currently the most productive of all car and truck plants in North America," Carlos Gomes, Scotiabank's auto industry specialist, said in a release. "The facility has nearly a three per cent productivity advantage over its nearest competitor — a Nissan plant in Smyrna, Tenn. GM's No.2 car plant in Oshawa, was ranked fourth. Toyota's facility in Cambridge, Ont., did not participate in this year's Harbour report, but has traditionally been among the most efficient plants in North America."In addition, Ford's plant in St. Thomas, Ont., is the productivity leader in assembling large cars, with nearly a 30 per cent advantage over its nearest competitor. Gomes said GM's truck plant in Oshawa is the second most efficient plant assembling full-size pickups across North America, with a 14 per cent productivity advantage.High productivity levels in Oshawa suggest those factories will be protected from GM's coming restructuring, which calls for the elimination of 25,000 jobs. But a narrowing in Canada's productivity advantage reflects the startup of new assembly plants in the U.S. South, which are about 10 per cent more efficient than existing U.S. plants. Automakers have also invested more than $5 billion US in Mexico's auto industry since 2003."Scotiabank's Auto Report says the narrowing of that gap and a 27 per cent rise in the value of the Canadian dollar against the U.S. currency since early 2002 have reduced the competitive advantage of Canada's auto industry to less than $250 US per vehicle — from more than $400 US three years ago. Car and light truck sales moderated across North America in May, easing to an annualized 19.2 million units from an average of 19.4 million during the previous four months and a total of 19.5 million in 2004.Purchases in the United States fell to an annualized 16.6 million units in May from 17.4 million in April. In Canada, after a very strong performance in April, Canadian new vehicle purchases stalled in May, falling to an annualized 1.48 million units from April's 1.69 million.Canadian vehicle sales have advanced one per cent, year-to-date, and full-year purchases are expected to total 1.565 million units, up from 1.535 million last year. have copied the article here from The Toronto Star web site as they are difficult to access on the site after a few days.
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