The rustbelt area of the United States was probably hit the hardest during the recent recession. With manufacturing jobs going overseas to help companies save money all the way to the automotive industry battling through bankruptcy, for a while, cities like Dayton, Ohio, saw a larger than average inflation of locals without work. However, that has since changed and the manufacturing industry is on the rebound. While it is not yet back to the same numbers it once boasted before the recession, more and more jobs continue to return to the area. One major reason behind this is because of the resurgence of the auto industry. General Motors held several different manufacturing plants within the area, and while GM is not opening up all of the plants back up, other auto manufacturers have taken noticed and started to move into Dayton, thanks to its centralized location along important Interstate 75.
Fuyao, a Chinese auto parts manufacturer, recently moved operations into a former General Motors plant, bringing along with it 800 full time jobs. The company also set out a $200 million investment into the region and upgrading the building as well. However, this is just the initial investment and it is expected to continue to grow. Many in Dayton are comparing this to when Honda brought the production of motorcycles into Ohio in the 1970s. At the time, it required only a few hundred employees to do this. Now, there are over 13,000 jobs related to Honda in Ohio, so there are high hopes for this new agreement to bring in the manufacturing jobs.
The auto manufacturing utilized by Fuyao does take advantage of some injection molding services in order to mass produce large quantities of the products. The company also produces automotive glass for different kinds of vehicles throughout the world. The company also works directly with General Motors, so as GM rebounds, production is likely to increase, which means more jobs.
Before the movement of Fuyao into the former GM plant, the plant had remained idle, without any sort of work going into it, since 2008 when General Motors shut down production in the plant just a few weeks before it filed for bankruptcy. So, this is very good news for the city of Dayton, Ohio, the region and for the injection molding industry as well. It all points to a promising expansion over the next several years.