Mitsubishi to suspend production at Ill. factory

NEW YORK - Mitsubishi said Friday it will suspend production at its plant in Normal, Ill., for seven weeks starting Feb. 18, joining other foreign automakers that are halting U.S. assembly lines to adjust to the worst sales environment in a quarter century.

Mitsubishi sales have fallen sharply alongside the broader auto industry. The Tokyo-based automaker's U.S. sales have fallen 25 percent this year compared with 2007 and were down 36 percent for November alone.

"We have to build to demand," said Dan Irvin, spokesman for Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc.

He said the production shutdown will be the longest in the plant's 20-year history. Employees will still report to work and perform other duties such as maintenance or training, and will be paid as usual.

U.S. auto sales through November fell 16 percent from the first 11 months of 2007 and the seasonally adjusted annual sales rate reached its lowest point in 26 years last month, according to Autodata Inc.

Overseas automakers have taken a pummeling recently just like their Detroit counterparts, and they have been cutting production as a result.

Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz said Thursday it was shuttering operations at its plant in Alabama for two days in December and two weeks next month.

Honda Motor Co. said last month it would cut North American production by another 18,000 vehicles, bringing its total cuts to 50,000 since August.

The Mitsubishi plant shutdown, which was reported by the Peoria Journal Star on Friday, comes just two months after the automaker and the United Auto Workers union ratified a new four-year contract for the plant's 1,568 employees. The plant, which produces the Eclipse, Eclipse Spyder, Galant and Endeavor, has been the focus of company cutbacks for several years.

The plant now employs fewer than half the workers it did at its peak about 10 years ago.

Irvin said no new layoffs are planned at the plant. During previous shutdowns, plant employees historically have had the option of taking unpaid time off during production shutdowns, but Irvin said it's too early to know what options will be available to employees.

"We have not officially communicated the options to the people," he said.

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