UPDATE: Opel Unveils Restructuring Plans

General Motors Co.'s Adam Opel unit says it aims to boost output at its underutilized assembly plants in Europe by building vehicles for export and perhaps making Chevrolet vehicles at Opel factories.

Opel CEO Karl-Friedrich Stracke says the company wants to expand its sales in such markets as Australia, Latin America and the Middle East. He also declares that Opel will produce the next-generation Astra compact car at two factories instead of the current three.

Stracke did not confirm widespread expectations that Opel will shutter at least one assembly plant. But he reiterates that the company will honor its European union contracts, which bar involuntary job cuts through 2014. Stracke has hinted that Opel intends to maintain Astra output at a factory in Ellesmere Port, England, and a low-cost facility in Gliwice, Poland.

Opel also unveiled a plan to invest €11 billion in new models by 2014 to restore its dwindling European market share. The company announced last week it would introduce a city car, dubbed the Adam, next year. Opel expects to build the new car at its facility in Eisenach, Germany.

Stracke says that if GM and its new alliance partner PSA Peugeot Citroen decide to shift production of an Opel model rumored to be the Zafira MPV to a PSA plant, the French carmaker would move one of its models to Opel's factory in Russelsheim, Germany. European labor leaders have worried that the PSA tie-up would reduce Opel's output.

Opel is consulting with GM officials in Asia and Detroit about whether it makes sense to assemble Chevy models in Europe that are currently produced in South Korea, according to Stracke. He adds that Opel Stracke told The Wall Street Journal the unit might export 30,000-50,000 Opel vehicles per year.

GM lost $1 billion (€777 million) in Europe in the past five quarters and has vowed to restructure Opel to return it to profitability. The company has indicated it will outline turnaround measures in a series of announcements in the months ahead.