OK Plant Reopens June 30

General Motors Corp.'s Oklahoma City assembly plant, which has been closed since sustaining major damage in a May 8 tornado, will reopen June 30, GM tells Ward's.

The tornado struck the factory's paint shop, body shop and powerhouse. No GM employees were injured, but one truck driver delivering parts to the plant was taken to the hospital.

The tornado hit the plant, which makes TrailBlazer EXTs, Envoy XL and XUVs and Isuzu Ascenders, at about 5:30 p.m. local time — roughly 20 minutes after a siren warned workers to take shelter.

The plant tested the alarm earlier in the day, as it does every Thursday, and just completed a tornado-warning drill three weeks earlier.

GM invested $700 million in the factory beginning in 2001 to change over production from Chevrolet Malibu to SUV output. The plant makes more than 600 SUVs daily.

Australian parts makers Futuris Corp. and Pacifica Group fear that the tornado will affect their production.

Futuris owns heating, ventilation and air-conditioning supplier Air Intl., and Pacifica makes brakes for the TrailBlazer and Envoy.

Neither parts maker knows the status of their business with the plant.