Mississippi's First Automotive Plant Opens

CANTON - The first new vehicle ever to be manufactured in Mississippi rolled off Nissan's Canton Assembly plant Tuesday, opening the company's new $1.4 billion plant during a gala ceremony.

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn was joined at the opening by 2,000 cheering workers and a host of  Mississippi officials who helped steer the company to build the plant in the state with $363 million in incentives.

"We had strong support from the community and state,"said Ghosn."We've been impressed so far,"

Among the officials attending the opening of the plant were Governor Ronnie Musgrove, Senators Thad Cochran and Trent Lott, State Attorney General Mike Moore, Lt. Governor Amy Tuck, State Treasurer Marshall Bennett and others.

"The rest of the world has noticed what has happened here. said Gov. Ronnie Musgrove. The rest of the world will be watching what we do."

Nissan plans to use the plant to enter the large truck and sport utility market. Currently, the company doesn't have a vehicle that can compete with large pickups such as Ford's F-150, the Chevy Silverado or Dodge Ram. Nissan plans to build their new Titan full-sized pickup, the Armada SUV, and a new large SUV for their luxury Infinity Division, in Canton. But the first vehicle off the line will be the company's uniquely-styled Quest minivan.

The huge plant will eventually employ 5,300  workers and make 400,000 vehicles a year when it reaches peak production in 2004. More than 40 percent of the Canton's plant capacity will be dedicated to Nissan's first full-size truck products:

Jerry Crisler, a 44-year-old father of five who works in the plant's paint shop, was chosen to speak for all the workers at Tuesday's ceremony. Articulate and obviously well-liked by many of the workers Crisler said working at the plant was the result of over a year of waiting after putting in his applications.

"When I leave work and go shopping, I don't take my uniform off, "Crisler said to a wave of cheers from fellow workers. "This place really is a field of dreams,"

Ghosn said his company chose the South for its second U.S. automotive plant because because its nearly 20-year experience in the South had been a good one. Nissan also operates a manufacturing plant in Smyna, Tennessee.

"I'm not saying the North or the West don't have advantages, but I'm convinced the South is a good place to do business," Ghosn said.

The giant plant, locate north of Jackson off of I-55, is more like a small town than a factory, with huge working areas, a medical facility and even a bank inside the factory. Suppliers and additional manufacturing buildings operated  by vendors dot the 14,000 acre site around the main production plant. The main building stretches for nearly 7/10ths of a mile.

Workers, surrounded by heavy machines, robotic welders and thousands of bins for parts, will assemble the vehicles, which Ghosn said, will come off  the assembly line at a vehicle a minute.