General Motors mentioned it should idle its Fort Wayne Assembly full-size pickup plant in Indiana subsequent month for 2 weeks because the automaker works to handle stock ranges.
Employees had been notified Wednesday that manufacturing could be idled beginning March 27, GM spokesman Dan Flores mentioned in an announcement. Fort Wayne Assembly is the one manufacturing unit affected by the announcement, he mentioned.
The plant downtime is “an effort to maintain optimal inventory levels with our dealerships,” Flores mentioned. “The plant constantly reviews and adjusts production schedules according to customers’ needs. All actions taken are in accordance with provisions of the UAW-GM National Bargaining Agreement and the local agreement.”
Fort Wayne Assembly builds the light-duty Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. GM additionally builds heavy-duty Silverado and Sierra pickups in Flint, Mich.; light- and heavy-duty variations of the Silverado in Oshawa, Ontario in Canada; and light-duty Chevy and GMC full-size pickups at its Silao plant in Mexico.
“Our production is up over the past month while demand remains fairly consistent, leading to an increase in inventory,” Flores mentioned. “Therefore, as we stated on our earnings call, we are going to proactively manage inventory levels, including plant downtime.”
CFO Paul Jacobson informed analysts on the automaker’s fourth-quarter earnings name in January that GM ended 2022 with a roughly 50-day provide of dealership stock, together with in-transit autos. GM goals to have a 50- to 60-day provide on the finish of 2023, which might be 20 to 30 days under mid-2019 ranges, assuming logistics challenges proceed to ease, Jacobson mentioned.
“We’re committed to actively managing production levels to balance supply with demand,” he mentioned on the decision.
“Within this portfolio target, trucks are expected to run at higher levels, reflecting greater customer-driven variation requirements, and sedans and SUVs are expected to run at this range or lower,” Jacobson added. “Throughout the year, sales seasonality, production schedules and timing of fleet deliveries may take us out of this range from time to time, but that is the targeted range at which we’ll manage.”
GM this week additionally idled its Bowling Green Assembly plant in Kentucky, which builds the Chevrolet Corvette, due to a brief components scarcity unrelated to semiconductors. Production ought to begin up once more Monday, Flores mentioned.
The Detroit News earlier reported on the Fort Wayne plant’s idling.
Source: www.autonews.com