GM, Ford Extend Downtime at Some NA Plants on Chip Shortage

Here is where things stand with Detroit-based GM, the United States’ largest automaker:

GM’s Lansing Grand River (LGR) assembly plant in Michigan will resume regular production on Monday, Oct. 4. The plant builds the Chevrolet Camaro sports car as well as the Cadillac CT4 and CT5 luxury cars.

Camaro production had been down since Sept. 13, and CT4 and CT5 production has been down since May 10, the automaker said.

“With production resuming at LGR, most of GM’s assembly plants in North America will be running regular production the week of Oct. 4,” a company spokesman said.

But south of the border, GM’s Ramos assembly plant in Mexico will take two additional weeks of downtime, through the week Oct. 11, when it comes to production of the Chevrolet Blazer SUV.

Blazer production at Ramos has been down since Aug. 23. Also down through Oct. 11 at Ramos is production of the Equinox compact SUV, which has not been built there since Aug. 16.

GM had previously announced that its San Luis Potosi plant in Mexico and its CAMI assembly plant in Canada would be down through Oct. 11 as would its Orion assembly plant in Michigan. That is still the case, the spokesman said.

The downtime in Canada and Mexico is because of chip shortages while the downtime at Orion – which builds the Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle – is a battery pack shortage stemming from a safety recall, he said.

Also down, as GM previously announced, is production of the Chevrolet Malibu car at the automaker’s Fairfax assembly plant in Kansas. The downtime there stretches through the week of Oct. 25.

At Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford, meanwhile, production of the Transit van at the automaker’s assembly plant in Claycomo, Mo., just outside of Kansas City, will be down the week of Oct. 4, a company spokesman said.

Production at Ford’s Flat Rock assembly plant in Michigan will also be down next week. And Ford’s truck plant in Louisville, Ky., will run only one shift, he said.

Flat Rock makes the Ford Mustang and Shelby GT350 and 350R sports cars. The Kentucky truck plant makes Ford’s F series pickup trucks as well as Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs.

By Michael Cowden, Michael@SteelMarketUpdate.com