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LORDSTOWN - A story from a South Korea newspaper that General Motors Corp. plans to shift some production of that nation's version of the Chevrolet Cruze small car to Lordstown generated more questions than answers Friday.

''If it comes, it'd be great for the area, but we haven't heard anything. We're still focusing on launching the Cruze,'' Jim Graham, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112 at the Lordstown East assembly plant, said.

''There's nothing confirmed,'' echoed Dave Green, president of Local 1714 of the Lordstown West Metal Center. ''I think it'd be great. Anything to get our members back to work.''

Production of the Premiere, which was launched in November 2008, would be more than 100,000 units, the South Korea newspaper reported.

Lordstown spokesman Tom Mock questioned the timing of the potential production shift reported in Seoul, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper. Citing GM as its source, the newspaper reported the Lordstown plant would build the GM Daewoo version of the Cruze, called the Lacetti Premiere, beginning in April to be sold in North America beginning July.

However, the launch of Cruze is not scheduled for Lordstown until a July-August period.

Mock said GM hasn't changed its revised launch date for the Cruze in the third quarter of 2010 from early April.

''There's nothing to indicate the car has been moved back to April,'' Mock said. ''We're still building the (Chevrolet) Cobalt and getting ready to for the Cruze.''

The automaker initially planned to launch the Cruze in the summer before moving it up to April, then recently returning it to a July-August period.

The area of agreement is that a perfect launch of the 2011 Cruze is critical to GM's image as a new company after leaving Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July.

''They've been chastised for not being able to make small cars. If the launch doesn't go well, that will certainly add some fuel to the argument GM can't make a fuel-efficient small car,'' auto analyst Erich Merkle said.

Merkle said GM is under extra pressure due to some $50 billion it received from the federal government to help it reorganize in bankruptcy. The government is pushing U.S. automakers to build more gas-sipping vehicles as a way to control the nation's oil consumption.

To cut gas usage, the Cruze will offer a six-speed automatic transmission paired with 1.8 liter standard engine or 1.4 liter turbocharged optional engine, the latter capable of 40 miles per gallon or more on the highway. Issues with how the transmission was shifting prompted the pushback on the launch, GM said.

GM Daewoo in 2007 started a powertrain plant in Korea, where it makes six-speed automatic transmissions used in the Pemiere. The company has said the factory will be able by 2010 to double its output of six-speed automatic transmissions to 300,000.

Paul Lacy, manager of technical research for IHS Global Insights in Troy, Mich., said GM should be able to fix the transmission issue for the American Cruze.

''Their in-house transmission people have always been relatively good,'' he said.

lringler@tribtoday.com