While new global auto assembly investment was up last year, none of the announcements came from Canada, according to a report from the University of Windsor.
The Annual Major Automotive Assembler Investment Announcements Report, prepared by the Office of Automotive & Vehicle Research (OAVR) at the Odette School of Business at the University of Windsor, and the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, noted that Canada has not had any new capacity investment announcements in four of the last five years from 2011 to 2014.
Over this four year period, Canada has received only $180 million or 0.2 per cent of all global new capacity investment announcements.
Only investments in new assembly plants or to increase capacity at existing plants are included in the report. While automakers have made efforts recently to invest in their existing OEM-owned Canadian plants, these investments are excluded from the report, along with investments to upgrade plants that have no effect on capacity.
In the report, $24.1 billion in auto assembler new capacity investments were announced globally in 2014 — a 36.9 per cent increase from the $17.6 billion reported in 2013.
Once again, China led the way with 52.7 per cent or $12.7 billion of all assembler new capacity investments announced in 2014. The U.S. was up substantially from 2013 with new capacity investment announcements of $4.2 billion.
After China, the next three leading countries in new capacity investments over the past four years were:
- Mexico: $9.3 billion
- The U.S.: $7.7 billion
- Brazil: $7.6 billion
Even though Canada did not increase its auto assembly investments in 2014, vehicle assembly in Canada was up 4.8 per cent to nearly 2.5 million units.
The report also states automotive jobs in Canada remain below the levels reached before the downturn of 2009.
