Isuzu Motors Ltd., the financially beleaguered truck-making affiliate of General Motors Corp., has outlined a reconstruction plan that calls for the abolition of 3,000 jobs -- 10 percent of the Isuzu group's 28,000-strong workforce -- and cutting 30 percent of its output capacity, Isuzu officials said Saturday.
After drawing up the remaining details, Isuzu will reveal on May 28 its finalized plans, which will also propose shutting down, possibly by fiscal 2003, its main factory in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, the officials said.
The truck maker, which is 49 percent owned by GM, will seek a return to profitability during the current fiscal year, ending in March 2002, by promoting efforts to reduce costs, they said.
But it will take the reconstruction measures three years to pull the company out of its current serious slump, caused by protracted poor sales of trucks, the officials said.
Other plants to be subjected to personnel cutbacks will include those in Ohira, Tochigi Prefecture, and in Tomakomai, Hokkaido, they said.
The maker will transfer some workers to subsidiaries and affiliates, while curbing the number of new recruits.
According to the sources, Isuzu plans to sell the 368,000 sq.-meter plot that presently accommodates the company's main Kawasaki plant.
One half of the factory premises is to be sold in fiscal 2001 to the government-backed Urban Development Corp. Both parties have signed a preliminary agreement to this end, they said.
The company will sell the remaining portion of the premises as soon as possible, they said.
Isuzu will commission another truck plant in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, to manufacture models that are now being made at the Kawasaki plant when it closes.
Isuzu President Yoshinori Ida earlier said, "Our production capacity has grown excessive and requires cutting to an appropriate level."