Daimler Chrysler plans mid-sized SUV

Toledo, Ohio DaimlerChrysler AG will produce its new mid-sized sport utility vehicle — the 2007 Dodge Nitro — at its Jeep assembly plant in Toledo next year, adding a third shift and building the Nitro alongside the Jeep Liberty.

It would be the first mid-sized Dodge SUV and first non-Jeep product in more than 10 years to be made at the plant.

“Its presence will go a long way to expand the Dodge brand,” said Byron Green, DaimlerChrysler’s vice president of truck and activity vehicle assembly. “There’s nothing on the market quite like it.”

DaimlerChrysler intends to invest $600 million to develop and produce the Nitro. More than $100 million of that will be used to expand and upgrade the plant to produce the Nitro and Jeep Liberty on one production line. It will include adding 150 robots and conveyors at the plant, DaimlerChrysler spokesman Ed Saenz said.

“It helps ensure the viability of the plant in the future,” Saenz said.

Toledo Jeep currently has 3,800 workers and 200 on a rotating layoff.

Saenz said it is too soon to say how many new jobs may be created by the new third shift or to forecast sales of the Nitro.

“Additional volume is always dependent on market reaction,” he said.

Shares of DaimlerChrysler closed at $50.33, up 1 cent, in trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Jobless rate rises in Japan

Tokyo Japan’s unemployment rate rose to 4.5 percent in October, the government said Tuesday, suggesting a slowdown in the job market despite steady improvements in corporate profits.

The figure fell below the average forecast of economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, who had expected the jobless rate to hold steady at September’s level of 4.2 percent.

But spending by Japanese households headed by wage earners headed up 1.3 percent on year in October, according to the report by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications — the first gain in four months and better than the 0.1 percent fall expected by economists — suggesting a recovery in consumption on the back of improving incomes.

After more than a decade of stagnation, the world’s second largest economy has been slowly making a turnaround on stronger exports and consumer spending, as companies cut costs and boost profits.

Date set in New Jersey Vioxx trial

Atlantic City, N.J. A lawyer who helped a Texas widow win a $253 million verdict in the nation’s first Vioxx trial is going up against Merck & Co. again, this time in a New Jersey courtroom.

The judge overseeing more than 3,500 civil cases filed in New Jersey against Merck on Monday set a Feb. 27 trial date for the next one to be heard by a jury.

For now, Superior Court Judge Carol Higbee plans to consolidate the cases of Thomas Cona and John McDarby into that trial, although she left open the possibility that only the Cona case would go forward then.

She also set an April 24 trial for three other cases and a June 5 trial for two more after that.

Merck opposes trying two cases at once, and plans to submit a brief asking Higbee not to do so, according to Merck counsel Ted Mayer.