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BMW, the autoindustry’s leading manufacturer of upmarket cars, inspired by booming worldwide demand for its trendy SUV-Crossovers, swelling export order books and factories working at or near installed capacity limits, says it will invest $1bn to expand annual production capacity at its Spartanburg US plant from today’s 300,000 vehicles to 450,000 units by 2016. Last year, BMW’s vehicle production at the Spartanburg site eased back slightly to some 297,326 vehicles, made up of the X3, X5 and X6. Its new X4 has just joined the line-up, followed later by a new top-of-the-tree X7. In consequence, BMW’s line-up of high-status US-built X models at its humming South Carolina site, is about to rise to five. Despite isolated siren voices calling for notable capacity cutbacks in order to harmonise global underlying new vehicle demand with the autoindustry’s installed production capacity, some carmakers have not only failed to chop their capacity at existing plants, they pressed on regardless to increase their production capacity. The investment “will also make Spartanburg the largest plant in terms of production capacity in our global production network”, BMW said...more MORE LIKE THIS: > Audi, after run-away profit surge, takes pause for breath 13 Mar 2014 > Mercedes starts new year with a bang 14 Feb 2014 > Daimler’s Zetsche, at long last, comes up trumps 07 Feb 2014 |
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