Steel Markets

Chrysler Takes ~5 Weeks Downtime at Mexican Van Plant for Retooling

Written by Michael Cowden

January 11, 2022

Chrysler’s van assembly plant in Saltillo, Mexico, will take downtime through Thursday, Feb. 10, for retooling, a company spokeswoman said.

The Saltillo plant makes the Ram ProMaster van and has, like four other Chrysler plants in North America, been down since Monday, Jan. 3.

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Assembly plants in Belvidere, Ill.; Brampton, Ontario; Windsor, Ontario; and Toluca, Mexico, are also down. The result: five of Chrysler’s 12 assembly plants in North America are not producing at present.

While the Saltillo plant is down for retooling, the other four plants are taking downtime to “to align production with global sales,” the spokeswoman said.

She declined to clarify when Steel Market Update asked whether that phrase might be a euphemism for weaker-than-forecast demand. But, she added, “The downtime is not related to supply chain issues.”

Chrysler, a subsidiary of European automaker Stellantis, is not the only major automaker producing fewer vehicles this month.

Toyota, as SMU reported last month, continues to expect that it will produce 40,000-50,000 fewer vehicles than initially expected in January because of supply chain challenges.

A rough rule of thumb is that each vehicle contains approximately one ton of steel.

By Michael Cowden, Michael@SteelMarketUpdate.com

Michael Cowden

Michael Cowden is editor-in-chief for Steel Market Update. Cowden has covered the steel industry since 2007. He specializes in flat-rolled steel but has also reported on steel long products, steel pipe and tube, and aluminum. Before joining SMU, Cowden held reporting jobs at Fastmarkets AMM in Chicago, 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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