(Reuters) – General Motors (GM.N) said on Friday it will close four North American plants that primarily make cars and not SUVs or trucks, for two weeks due to a parts shortage linked to the recent earthquake in Japan.
GM looked at parts availability and its North American plant operations and decided that these four plants would close to ensure adequate parts supply, a company spokeswoman said.
Operations at Lordstown, Ohio; Fairfax, Kansas; Spring Hill, Tennessee; and the Flex Oshawa plant in Ontario will be shut for two weeks beginning on April 25, GM said in a statement. (http://bit.ly/1NFs7v9)
GM will make up the production lost during the shutdowns by the end of this year, the company said.
“This temporary adjustment is not expected to have any material impact” on the company’s full-year production plan or either its second-quarter or full-year financial results for North America, GM said.
In the past few years and especially as gasoline prices have remained low, GM and other automakers have experienced greater consumer demand for pickup trucks and SUVs than sedans and hatchbacks.
The Lordstown plant makes the Chevrolet Cruze compact car; Spring Hill makes the Cadillac XT5 midsize crossover SUV; Fairfax makes the midsize Chevrolet Malibu and the fullsize Buick LaCrosse sedans; and Oshawa Flex makes the fullsize Chevrolet Impala and the midsize Buick Regal sedans as well as the fullsize Cadillac XTS sedan.
GM shares were down 0.9 percent at $32.37 at midday on Friday.
(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru and Bernie Woodall in Detroit; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Diane Craft)
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/gm-temporarily-idle-four-north-152011443.html
Its also Japan’s fault why they have to hide all the cars they can’t sell in the new car boneyards.
Kind of hard to buy a new car when you can’t get a job.
Plus we the taxpayers bailed GM out.
If maybe they made the parts here we wouldn’t have this problem would we.
Toyotal bullsht.
Has anyone been checking these parts for radiation? I think not. I have read reports that every other country has been rejecting Japanese parts for excessive radiation. Maybe time to get a radiation detector.