General Motors has announced a new round of investments into its U.S.-based manufacturing operations, including $70 million for its engine plant in Tonawanda, New York, and over $6 million for its metal stamping plant in Parma, Ohio. The new investments will support continuing strong demand for General Motors’ line of pickup trucks, including the GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado.
“GM continues to invest to strengthen our core business and respond to growing customer demand for our full-size pickups,” said GM vice president of North America Manufacturing and Labor Relations, Phil Kienle. “Our Tonawanda and Parma teams are dedicated to building world-class products for our customers and these investments reflect our confidence in these teams.”
Located in Buffalo, New York, the General Motors Tonawanda facility produces a broad range of engines, including:
- Naturally aspirated 4.3L V6 LV3 and LV1
- Naturally aspirated 5.3L V8 L82 and L84
- Naturally aspirated 6.6L V8 L8T
- Naturally aspirated 2.5L I4 LCV
- Turbocharged 2.0L I4 LTG
The Tonawanda facility is operated by roughly 1,300 employees, and spans some 3.1 million square feet of floor space. The facility includes numerous plants, the oldest of which opened in 1938.
Meanwhile, the General Motors metal stamping plant in Parma, Ohio is responsible for processing more than 800 tons of steel per day, servicing and supporting the majority of General Motors North America produced vehicles. The facility has more than 750 individual dies, and can produce upwards of 100 million parts per year.
“The manufacturing processes include small, medium and large transfer press lines, high speed progressive presses, and a world class cut-to-length shear, as well as GM North America’s largest stand-alone, multi-cell, resistance and laser welding metal assembly operations,” General Motors states in a press release.
The the General Motors Parma metal stamping plant is located in Cleveland, Ohio, and first opened in 1948. The facility encompasses some 2.3 million square feet, and employees more than 1,000 workers.
Subscribe to GM Authority for more General Motors financial news and around-the-clock General Motors news coverage.
Comments
GM has invested much into the Parma’s plant here over the last 15 years.
I was lucky to get your this plant a while back and it is a very large and impressive operation.
While Ohio lost Lordstown Ohio has benefited much with a lot of GM investment while Ford and Chrysler closed a good number of plants.
Wouldn’t it make more sense for the GM Propulsion Plant in St. Catharines to supply the engines for the trucks they are going to produce in Oshawa. It’s in the same country, it’s closer to Oshawa than Tonawanda and makes world class V8 engines. They supplied Oshawa in the past. Makes better sense to me.
The article specifically mentions the increased capacity is to help meet Silverado/Sierra demand. This along with the reopening of Oshawa indicates GM really expects to sell a lot more full size trucks in coming years.
My brother is a tool & die maker at Parma MFD ; this is good news for him. And it looks like Tonawanda will continue to build the Best. Engines. Ever.
This is one of the very few decently sized plants the Buffalo area has left, and since I’m a Town of Tonawanda Taxpayer, who sees my taxes constantly rise with the closing of power plants and industries leaving, it is refreshing to see the HUGE $70 million being invested here.
For those ‘unaffected’ by this particular move, you can have the satisfaction that the engines manufactured at this plant have proven reliability. Well Done GM – but I think more of the congratulations belong to the workers themselves, as well as an enlightened local management that ‘Keeps a good thing Going’.
The GM Oshawa, Ontario plant is being modified now to start making the 2022 model pickup trucks, probably by mid 2021, maybe June or July. Since the huge volume of trucks requires mostly V8 engines, the Tonawanda plant will be supplying the engines to Oshawa, as it’s only just over 100 miles between these two plants. Since a U.S based truck driver is allowed to work as long as 11 hours per day, any Buffalo area driver can do 2 return trips a day between the plants on one shift. In fact, he could work just 4 days a week for a total of about 40 hours and have 3 days off. Years ago, when GM stopped making pickup trucks at the Oshawa plant, it had the best quality of any GM plant in North America. The GM Oshawa grounds has a test track which they can use to put 4 or 5 miles on each truck before it’s shipped, to make sure it’s perfect.