Arlington GM presses $200M under the hood

ARLINGTON – General Motors (GM) has opened a new $200 million facility at its assembly plant at 2525 E. Abram St.

The first of three mammoth stamping presses is up and running at General Motors’ newest stamping facility here. The contiguous stamping plant announced in 2012 adds 180 jobs to GM’s Arlington manufacturing complex and is one of ten contiguous stamping operations globally that started production in the last five years.

The new stamping facility will produce large metal parts, such as doors, hoods and side panels, for the next generation of the full-size SUVs. The Arlington plant is the lone source for Chevrolet Tahoes, Suburbans, GMC Yukons and Cadillac Escalades sold globally.

The plant occupies a three-story, 175-foot-long building on the north end of GM’s Arlington campus. Building the plant is expected to save the company $40 million a year in transportation costs.

The new plant is part of a $530 million expansion and renovation at the nearly 60-year-old facility to prepare for the new line of big SUVs. After adding 1,000 jobs, GM now employs more than 4,200 people in three shifts at its Arlington facility, which builds about 1,200 SUVs per day.