GM’s offshore plant strategy

General Motors not only plans to close the Opel plant in Germany’s Bochum and the plant in the UK’s Ellesmere Port but is set on simultaneously boosting capacity in so-called low-cost countries such as Poland, Russia, China, India, Mexico and Brazil, according to a GM strategy paper presented at the GM Global Business Conference, Der Spiegel reported yesterday.

According to the strategy paper, named Global Assembly Footprint, GM plans to manufacture up to 80 percent of additional vehicles in these countries once unit sales rise, saying that currently, about half its cars are manufactured in high-cost countries in Northern America and Europe.