LOUISVILLE, Ky. — GE Appliances plans to shift production of refrigerators, gas ranges and water heaters out of China and Mexico as part of a more than $3 billion investment to expand its U.S. operations in Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina.
The investment — the second-largest in the Louisville-based company’s history — is expected to add more than 1,000 jobs while ramping up domestic production and modernizing plants in the next five years.
“Our long-term strategy is about manufacturing close to our customers,” said CEO Kevin Nolan. “With lean manufacturing, upskilling our workforce and automation, the math works for manufacturing in the United States.”
The majority of GE Appliances’ production is already in the U.S. and the shift means only that the company will transfer more work to its domestic plants.
GE Appliances will relocate production of gas ranges from Mexico to a plant in Georgia, while six refrigerator models now made in China will be manufactured at its Alabama plant, the company said.
In June, the company said it would move production of clothes washers from China to its sprawling manufacturing complex in Louisville. The reshoring announcements come as President Donald Trump tries to lure factories back to the United States by imposing import taxes — tariffs — on foreign goods.
GE Appliances said Wednesday that the first phase of its new investment will begin at plants in five Southern states — Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina.
“We are defining the future of manufacturing at GE Appliances by investing in our plants, people and communities,” Nolan said. “No other appliance company over the last decade has invested more in U.S. manufacturing than we have, and our $3 billion, five-year plan shows that our commitment to U.S. manufacturing will