Nissan Announces Production Strategy For Canton Plant; Production Suppliers Bring Additional Jobs, Investments to Mississippi

    JACKSON, Miss., July 17 Announcing the first wave of
production suppliers to its new vehicle assembly plant in Canton, Miss.,
Nissan North America will take the next step toward totally integrated vehicle
assembly.  According to Emil Hassan, senior vice president, North American
Manufacturing, Purchasing, Quality and Logistics, three new production plants
will be built adjacent to the Nissan plant to supply it with vehicle modules
and components, and four new production plants will be built within two miles
of the Nissan plant in Madison County.  One new plant will be built in
Vicksburg, Miss.
    "At our Canton plant, we'll place a major emphasis on having suppliers
assemble and deliver modules and components in the same sequence as the
vehicles produced on our production lines," said Hassan.  "Nissan's
manufacturing operations are widely acclaimed as efficient, high-quality
plants, so the use of modular assembly in sequence delivery should take those
attributes to even higher levels."
    In addition to the initial 3,300 jobs and $930 million investment Nissan's
Canton plant represents, these automotive suppliers will bring significant
investments and more jobs to the state.  Although many of these suppliers are
still early in the planning phase, approximately $140 million is expected to
be invested in new Mississippi manufacturing plants, and approximately
1,000 new jobs will be available for local employees.
    "Today's announcement is great news for the people of Mississippi," said
Gov. Ronnie Musgrove.  "These investments show that Mississippi is a great
place to do business, and Mississippi-owned suppliers can compete with anyone,
anywhere."
    CalsonicKansei North America will build two new plants in Mississippi -- a
25,000-square-foot plant adjacent to the Nissan plant in Canton and a
150,000-square-foot plant in Vicksburg.  Calsonic will supply front-end
modules, exhaust systems, catalytic converters and A/C plumbing to Nissan.
    Johnson Controls will supply seats for the vehicles to be built in Canton.
The company will build a 120,000-square-foot facility in the Canton Industrial
Center.
    Mi-Tech Steel will process coiled steel from an 80,000-square-foot plant
that will be built in the Canton Industrial Center.
    Systems Electro-Coating LLC., a joint venture between PPG Industries Inc.
and Jackson-based Systems Consultants Associates Inc., will apply an
anti-corrosion electrodeposition primer to sheet-metal components and parts
from a 125,000-square-foot plant to be built in the Canton Industrial Center.
PPG will also supply automotive coatings for the Nissan vehicles and plastic
bumpers produced in Canton.
    T&WA will supply tire and wheel assemblies to Nissan from a new
36,000-square-foot plant to be built adjacent to the Nissan plant.
    Tower Automotive will supply vehicle frames from its new plant in the
Canton Industrial Center.  The plant will cover 160,000 square feet.
    Visteon and Jackson-based Lextron Corporation through Lextron/Visteon
Automotive Systems, LLC. will supply front-end modules and cockpit modules
from a 97,500-square-foot plant that will be built adjacent to the Nissan
plant.
    Construction of new plants will begin in the third and fourth quarters of
2001.  Production will begin according to the schedule required to support
Nissan's vehicle launch timing.  The first vehicles will be launched in Canton
in the summer of 2003.

    Nine executives from the automotive suppliers joined Hassan and Gov.
Ronnie Musgrove at the press conference held at the state Capitol, including:

    -- CalsonicKansei North America, Inc. -- Shiro Haraguchi, president;
    -- Johnson Controls Inc. -- Tom Bobo, vice president and general manager;
    -- Lextron Corporation -- Charles Doty, president and CEO;
    -- Mi-Tech Steel -- Stuart Ray, president;
    -- PPG Industries Inc. -- Richard Zahren, vice president, Automotive
       Coatings;
    -- Systems Consultants Associates, Inc. -- Toni Cooley, president;
    -- T&WA -- Tommie Burns Jr., chairman and CEO;
    -- Tower Automotive -- Jim Bernard, vice president, sales and marketing;
       and
    -- Visteon Corporation - Susan Skerker, senior vice president, Business
       Strategy and Corporate Relations.

    Three of the suppliers -- Lextron/Visteon Automotive Systems, Systems
Electro-Coating and T&WA -- are minority-owned companies.  Lextron/Visteon
Automotive Systems and Systems Electro-Coating are both headquartered in
Jackson, Miss.
    "With this announcement, we are confirming some of the goals we talked
about at the supplier conference we held in Jackson in February," says Hassan.
"At that time, we said we wanted to work with high-quality, competitive
suppliers with a long-term view.  We also said we are committed to a diverse
supply base, and these supplier companies reflect that approach.  The
partnership between these local minority firms and Tier 1 automotive suppliers
such as Visteon and PPG demonstrate a win-win situation that will be good for
each company, for Nissan and for Mississippi."
    Hassan also indicated that such partnerships could have applications
throughout the supply chain, saying:  "As we're reviewing sourcing proposals
directly from minority-owned firms, we're also encouraging our suppliers to
look at possibilities as they consider their Tier 2 choices."
    In North America, Nissan's operations include automotive styling,
engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing,
distribution and manufacturing.  More information on Nissan in North America
and the complete line of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at
http://www.nissandriven.com or contact the corporate media line at (310) 771-5631.

    For further information, please contact:  Fred Standish, Nissan Corporate
Communications (Michigan) - 734/516-6680, or Vicki Smith, Nissan Corporate
Communications, (Tennessee) - 615/459-1487.