General Motors and Isuzu Diesel Services of America plan to invest $175 million through their DMAX joint venture to build an engine components plant in Brookville, Ohio, and meet heavy-duty pickup demand, GM said Thursday.
The plant is about 20 miles from Moraine, Ohio, where the DMAX engine facility is located. The Brookville plant will deliver components to DMAX late next year. DMAX is owned 60 percent by GM and 40 percent by Isuzu. The investment in the 251,000-square-foot Brookville facility will create 100 jobs. Construction will be completed by the end of 2020.
“Strong demand for GM’s all-new family of Chevrolet and GMC heavy- and medium-duty pickups is driving us to find ways to build more Duramax diesel engines,” Gerald Johnson, GM’s executive vice president of global manufacturing, said in a statement. “The Brookville investment will enable us to machine more engine blocks and heads and ultimately enable our DMAX engine plant in Moraine to build more 6.6-liter diesel engines for our Flint truck assembly plant.”
GM launched its heavy-duty pickups this year. Dealers got their first shipments in July and will continue to increase their inventory through the first half of 2020, the statement said.
The investment was excluded from GM’s labor contract with the UAW, ratified last month. Brookville workers, like DMAX workers, will be represented by IUE-CWA Local 755, rather than by the UAW.