After temporarily halting activities at its Shreveport, Lousiana, plant last week, General Motors has been forced to shut down the Tonawanda, New York, facilities as well. Spokesperson Kim Carpenter has confirmed that on top of neutralizing production of the Colorado and Canyon engines, GM has laid off 59 of the plant’s 623 employees.
In both cases, GM isn’t certain when normal production will start again and has declined to identify the parts responsible for the shutdown. This series of events has surprised many industry observers, including IHS Automotive’s analyst Jim Gilette.
Gilette says the company has enough parts in stock and in transit by ship to operate normally for several weeks yet, but is choosing to use them for more popular and profitable models.
“When this will really hit North America in three or four weeks from now, when those ships have come to port and all the parts are on the vehicles but no more ships are on the way,” said Gilette.
When asked about this, Ms. Carpenter refused to comment. However, GM has stated that it planned to “supply the most critical operations,” echoing Gilette’s affirmations.
GM is currently the only one of the Big Three to have publicly declared being affected by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that have devastated Japan. At the time of writing, neither Chrysler nor Ford had taken similar measures.
Source: USA Today
In both cases, GM isn’t certain when normal production will start again and has declined to identify the parts responsible for the shutdown. This series of events has surprised many industry observers, including IHS Automotive’s analyst Jim Gilette.
Gilette says the company has enough parts in stock and in transit by ship to operate normally for several weeks yet, but is choosing to use them for more popular and profitable models.
“When this will really hit North America in three or four weeks from now, when those ships have come to port and all the parts are on the vehicles but no more ships are on the way,” said Gilette.
When asked about this, Ms. Carpenter refused to comment. However, GM has stated that it planned to “supply the most critical operations,” echoing Gilette’s affirmations.
GM is currently the only one of the Big Three to have publicly declared being affected by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that have devastated Japan. At the time of writing, neither Chrysler nor Ford had taken similar measures.
Source: USA Today