Subaru's U.S. sales surge spurs Fuji Heavy to add output

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.