Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the Toyota Motor Corp. affiliate that makes Subaru cars, will boost output at its Indiana plant for the fifth time in a year and hire more workers to meet surging U.S. demand.
Annual production capacity at the Lafayette factory should reach as many as 140,000 Subarus by year's end, a 40 percent increase, Tom Easterday, the facility's executive vice president, said today in an interview. The plant's second line can build as many as 100,000 Toyota Camrys a year.
"I've been here 21 years, since it opened, and we've never had growth this phenomenal," Easterday said. The plant, once a joint venture shared with Japanese truckmaker Isuzu Motors Ltd., should build a record 220,000 vehicles this year, he said.
Fuji Heavy, based in Tokyo, is taking advantage of a 41 percent jump in Subaru's U.S. sales through April. The Lafayette plant used 95 percent of its capacity in 2010's first quarter, up from 61 percent a year earlier, said Haig Stoddard, an analyst at consultant IHS Global Insight in Troy, Michigan.
"That increase is all due to Subarus," Stoddard said. "Camry production was relatively flat with a year ago."
Subaru of Indiana Automotive has added 200 workers, pushing employment to 3,326, with 40 more people still to be hired, Easterday said.
