On March 13, Lear Corp. announced that it is expanding its manufacturing footprint by 268,000 square feet at the former Cadillac Stamping Plant where it began just-in-time seating operations to supply GM’s Factory Zero in late 2022.
Lear is now the sole tenant of the 684,000-square-foot space on Detroit’s east side.
It is the latest in a series of planned local expansions for Lear, one of the world's largest automotive suppliers with USD 20.9 billion in revenue in 2022.
Lear announced in 2022 plans to open an USD 80 million plant in Independence Township, where it will make battery disconnect units for all full-size SUVs and trucks built on GM's Ultium EV platform through 2030.
Since GM announced USD 7 billion in EV investments in Michigan in 2022, suppliers including Lear and Magna International have announced their own expansion plans.
(multiple sources on March 13, 2023)
Stamping
On March 14, 2023, Proton, in addition to the unveiling of its new stamping line, officially made a public debut of the new SUV model at a line-off ceremony at its Tanjung Malim plant. This new model, which is the third SUV in the Proton range, will be the first Proton model to offer hybrid technology, marking Proton’s debut in the New Energy Vehicle (NEV) space.
This upcoming 3-row SUV, which is referred to as the X90, is scheduled to be launched later in 2023 in conjunction with Proton’s 40th anniversary. The X90 is based on the Geely Haoyue (also known as the Geely Okavango in other markets such as the Philippines).
(From Proton press release and an article of Paul Tan on March 14, 2023)
On March 14, 2023, Proton unveiled the newest stamping line at its plant in Tanjung Malim. With machines that can stamp out parts using up to 2,500-tonnes of force and capable of making 50 unique components, the new MYR 140 million stamping line is the largest in Malaysia and potentially reduces Proton’s annual use of imported parts by 115,000 units.
The stamping line’s construction works began in early April 2021 with machinery installation beginning in July 2022 and being fully completed by December. There are 5 stamping machines with a single machine capable of exerting 2,500-tonnes of force and 2 machines each with a pressing force of 1,200-tonnes and 1,000-tonnes respectively, the stamping line uses 6 robots to transfer parts between workstations and utilizes IR 4.0 technology using real-time data and machine learning to improve the quality of parts produced.
Proton added that the new stamping line also allows for greater flexibility when deciding its production mix every month and improves the speed by which it can locally produce new models.
(From Proton press release on March 14, 2023)