Steel Markets

GM Finds Chips, Dodges Shutdowns at Two Plants

Written by Michael Cowden

April 13, 2021

General Motors has secured enough microchips to resume output earlier than planned at one U.S. assembly plant and to avoid taking downtime at a facility in Mexico.

“GM’s supply chain organization has made strides working with our supply base to mitigate the near-term impacts of the semiconductor situation,” a company spokesman told Steel Market Update on Tuesday, April 13.

GM

The Detroit-based automaker will resume output at its Spring Hill, Tenn., assembly plant in the week of April 19. The facility–which builds the Cadillac XT5 and XT6 SUVs as well as the GMC Acadia SUV–was expected to be idled both this week and next.

And the company is cancelling previously planned downtime at its Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico on a line that makes the Chevrolet Blazer SUV.

The trend is notable because automakers have more often been compelled to extend downtime because of chip and other parts shortages as well as various supply chain snarls.

Ford, for example, is running only two of nine plants in the U.S. and Canada at normal rates this week.

Despites such outages, flat-rolled steel prices have continued to march steadily higher.

By Michael Cowden, Michael@SteelMarketUpdate.com

Michael Cowden

Michael Cowden is managing editor for Steel Market Update. Cowden has covered the steel industry since 2007. He has since 2014 specialized in flat-rolled steel but has previously reported on steel long products, steel pipe and tube as well as aluminum. Before joining SMU, Cowden held reporting jobs at Fastmarkets AMM in Chicago - where he was involved in launching AMM's daily hot-rolled coil index, the Associated Press in Pittsburgh, and the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh. He has also worked as a copy editor and in marketing at the University of Chicago Press. Cowden has a BA in English from the University of Chicago and an MSJ journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Contact him at michael@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7872.

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