General Motors plans $1-billion investment

General Motors would announce a $1 billion investment in its factories that would create or keep around 1,000 jobs, a person briefed on the matter said yesterday, Associated Press reported.

The announcement would be made this morning, and the investment formed part of the normal process of equipping factories to build new models. According to the person, the investment had been planned for months. The person did not want to be identified as the announcement had not yet been made.

The planned investment had also been reported by a number of other media outlets. According to GM spokesman Pat Morrissey, the automaker was planning to make an announcement at 9 am today on but declined to say what it is about or provide details.

The Associated Press reported that multiple factories would receive part of the money, but GM had no plans to state where the new jobs would go. GM  planned to use the announcement to point out the blue-collar and white-collar US jobs it had created in recent years, the person said.

The announcement had come after president-elect Donald Trump attacked GM and other automakers for building vehicles in Mexico and shipping them to the US.

Commentators pointed out that GM became only the latest automaker to announce US factory investments in response to Trump. Rivals Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said this month they would spend on US plants after Trump threatened for months to slap Mexico-built vehicles with a 35 per cent import tax.

Carmakers were looking to cooperate with the incoming administration as they prepared to ask for favours including weaker fuel economy rules and lower corporate taxes, according to commentators.

''This is the normal course of business,'' said Maryann Keller, an independent auto industry consultant in Stamford, Connecticut, Bloomberg reported. ''All they're doing is announcing investments that they would have made anyway.''