GM will halt production for a week starting Monday at a Fort Wayne, Indiana, assembly plant that builds the Chevrolet Siverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 model pickups. Other reductions are planned.
The temporary shutdown is due to the chip shortage tied to the Delta variant of COVID-19.
“These most recent scheduling adjustments are being driven by temporary parts shortages causes by semiconductor supply constraints from international markets experiencing COVID-19 related restrictions,” a GM spokesman said. “We expect it to be a near-term issue.”
GM also said its Flint, Michigan, assembly plant will be reduced to one shift, down from three, starting Monday, while production will stop at its Silao Assembly plant in Mexico. Both build GM pickups.
The pandemic is not only affecting the chip supply. Reuters has reported a Toyota shutdown of three plants in Thailand and Japan, while Honda is shutting production at its main plant in Japan.
Carmakers globally are cutting production of 3.9 million vehicles, including pickups, in 2021, with a cost of $110 billion in lost revenue, according to AlixPartners.The chip shortage began to materialize last December. When COVID-19 emerged last spring, customers stopped buying cars and carmakers stopped ordering chips. When demand for cars rebounded last fall, it took weeks in many cases for the supply chain to catch up and chipmakers had also moved to producing chips for other products.
GM has parked thousands of nearly finished pickups around its Fort Wayne plant as they wait for chips to be sent off to auto lots for sale, according to the Wane.com.
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