P.M. BRIEFING : Confident Fiat Plans New Plants

Auto giant Fiat, looking ahead to a recovery in world markets in 1993 and beyond, announced today it will build two new production plants in southern Italy.

The plan, unveiled by Fiat Chairman Giovanni Agnelli to Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, will require an investment of about $4.5 billion over the next three years and will create 8,300 new jobs in the economically depressed south.

One plant, designed to produce 1,800 cars a day, will be built in the Basilicata region. It will employ 7,000 people and will be about equal in size to Fiat’s highly automated plant in Cassino, near Rome. Fiat also plans to expand and remodel an existing car components factory near Avellino, in the Campania region, into a plant producing 3,600 engines a day and employing about 1,300 people.

Construction will be completed by the end of 1993 or the beginning of 1994, a Fiat spokesman said.