General Motors will idle North American pickup truck production through the remainder of July. The production cuts are the result of the ongoing global microchip shortage.
According to a recent report from Reuters, three North American GM production facilities are affected by the production cuts, including Flint Assembly in Michigan, which produces the Chevy Silverado HD and GMC Sierra HD, Fort Wayne Assembly in Indiana, which produces the Chevy Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500, and Silao Assembly in Mexico, which builds the Chevy Silverado 1500, Cheyenne and GMC Sierra 1500.
The Flint Assembly plant will be down to one production shift for the week of July 26th, while Fort Wayne Assembly and Silao Assembly will both be idled next week.
The recent production cuts at these three North American General Motors production facilities are the latest in a series of production changes stemming from the global microchip shortage. At the outset of the shortage, GM was forced to cut production at four of its facilities in February, later extending production cuts at several other facilities. Further cuts were implemented in April and May, including at GM’s Lansing Grand River facility, Wentzville Assembly, Fairfax Assembly, and CAMI assembly in Canada.
To help mitigate the effects of the global microchip shortage, which has impacted every major automaker in the world, General Motors is reportedly stockpiling vehicles in an unfinished state as new chips are sourced for completion. This “build-shy” strategy is intended to keep production lines rolling as the automaker grapples with the ongoing shortage.
In addition, GM is producing a number of popular vehicles without certain features. For example, GM has elected to build select units of the 2021 Chevy Silverado 1500, 2021 GMC Sierra 1500, and its range of full-size SUVs without fuel-saving technologies like automatic engine stop-start.
General Motors is currently seeking to establish a long-term supply contract to mitigate the effects a possible future chip shortage.
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Comments
What!!!!!
But according to Mary Clown Barra all is fine. GM is having record profits and that’s all that matters even with horribly declining market share.
Mary Must Go. Or GM will be destined for Chapter 7 liquidation.
This is bad news, but hard to blame Barra when Covid is spiking back up in Asia, it’s not easy to predict what supplies will be like, not to mention massive flood in central China damaged several auto parts suppliers. Besides, GM guided last year, this year was going to be tough on supplies, and they have guided the same again this year in every public statement. You and “GM Authority” might be the only ones surprised by this? Funny, GM Authority just posted an article yesterday saying things were better for GM, to which I replied, that was old news, about 2 weeks in the news cycle and things were actually getting worse temporarily. These writers at GM Authority just parrot other peoples statements, they do not actually do their own research, to find out what is really going on. I am just an individual investor that does his home work, and feel like I have forgotten more than the “GM Authority” will ever know about GM’s inner workings.
BTW, GM market share in trucks and Large SUV’s is strong, the only declines are in cars, which nobody wants and you cannot make money on…
I agree with your take on the subject. Makes me glad that I ordered my Sierra 1500 reg. cab long bed last December and took delivery in early March (built at the Silao plant). I think Barra has done an outstanding job as CEO, much better than most of her recent predecessors. I think that GM will be just fine going forward.
Someone may need to do some more homework….Mary is one of the top CEO’s in the country….Like her or hate her she is doing a great job…other companies have taken notice on how well she is doing also….look and see what the stock gurus are saying. I now own more GM cars then I ever had before, after having a few disappointing Fords and a very disappointing Honda. I have switched my loyalty to GM in the last 7 years and have been very impressed with all 4 of the vehicles purchased. So I am just wondering what the issue is?
Most hate her because she does an excellent job of navigating the stupid politics of today and that she has a financial background and like Toyota, focuses solely on profits, not product or customer.
She’s the antithesis of ettor Bugatti or Elon musk, Who make interesting products and don’t suck up ton anyone, but have almost bankrupted their companies multiple times.
@Steven In 2014, Mary Barra was given a very sick company that was struggling to make profits, had worn out plants, aged products, and an ignition nightmare that would not go away. Her history is in engineering, and not finance, and back in the day she was the plant manager at Hamtramck, Mark Reuss also worked there as a supervisor under her. Since Barra, GM has leaned out the company, and increased profits, built new body and paint shops at Arlington, Flint, Ft Wayne, Bowling Green, Silao MX, and is building new body and paint shops currently at Hamtramck, Spring Hill, CAMI, Ramos Arizpe, and Oshawa. She has basically modernized all the plants that were worn out, other than Lordstown, which they made the decision to cut their losses on, as it did not fit into GM’s future plans.
Mary Barra has also led the Cruise Automation purchase which has increased 30X in value since, and She has also gotten more return on investment for GM shareholders than any GM CEO in history. She launches UltiumCell, which I think will prove to be a strong division for GM in the future.
So its pretty hard to hate Barra, she by many measures has not only done a great job, but might go down as the best modern GM CEO in history.
As for Elon Musk, he is a special case, and nobody will measure up to his ability to raise money when the chips are down, and convince so many people he is the smartest man on earth… I tend to agree with Charlie Munger on Musk, but Tesla’s products are impressive for what they are.
My biggest problem with Mary Barra and GM, Mary can always find an extra billion or two to add to the slush funds for e/v and a/v programs, but when it comes to the money-making great ICE platforms, she always wants to push back any kind of updates. all we have gotten from GM the past year,(We got a new paint color for you). how many times have you read here on this site about another damn new paint color, all while they are telling you about abort plans on new updates on mid-cycle improvements? I love GM, but these are the hard cold facts.
dwight, do you think Barra makes product launch decisions? NOPE!!! A corporate CEO’s job is to keep an overview of the operations, but her main job is strategic vision, and communication with the board and investors. If you want to talk product, that is down Mark Reuss’s pipe, and individual product launch decisions likely take place a couple steps down from Mark. I am not sure specifically which mid cycle you are talking about, but if its the trucks, dude, GM is building every truck they can get the parts to build and selling them at full price, as a business you could not ask for more. You would prefer they slow production to launch the refresh right now, when the T1 platform is booming? That would not be too smart, now if sales on the T1 trucks slows, they are ready to go with the re-fresh, but right now, slowing sales are the furthest thing from their minds on the T1, and the C8, hence pushing back the T1 refresh, and the Z06. When they launch the refresh, they end up losing 1 month + of production, now is not the time to be losing any more production than you have to, this is after all a business, and not an enthusiasts playground.
What you just said back us Dwight. It’s Mary’s decision on the direction the company takes, so when, let’s say it’s Mark Reuss who’s responsible for all the delays, it’s supposed to be Mary who tells him to kick his butt I to gear or pack it. More than likely it’s Reuss who says his engineers have all these great ideas and have products ready to roll and it’sary who says, we need to wait and milk everything for every dime we can…. And in the meantime suck up to the hippies EV dreams that few want with all our spending cash. Yes, I blame Mary for that. I’d love to see Mark Reuss as CEO.
I’m happy I took the plunge and bought a new ’19 Silverado LD back in Jan 2020 just before
all the Pandemic drama unfolded. I got a great deal, she has all her parts ( including the chips)
and so far is running like a Rolex 🙂
While thete is certainly truth behind all this, wondering if one day, we will hear in the news that all this microchip shortage was only a strategy by some car builders to maximize income…
For what it worth, I m waiting so I can order a 2022 limited or perhaps the updated version.
Nope. The chip shortage is impacting FAR more than just the auto industry. Computer companies like Apple are hurting from the shortage and even some consumer-grade products will start being visibly affected soon if supplies don’t ramp back up. This is a huge, complicated situation that is affecting the globe, not just a few car companies.
Now, companies changing strategies as a result to try to maximize profits, that may very well be true. After all, a company’s reason to exist is to make a profit. But, this is not a deliberate effort to artificially raise prices.
At the same time, the #1 way to make profit is returning customers. Look at Toyotas success. Also name me 1 Toyota model that is better in it’s sent than the GM equivalent. 9/10 of those segments the GM is a better buy, but many buyers shifted to Japanese brands back in the 70-80’s when they weren’t served well by their American brands. You can’t alienate you Customers as well.
Cars are not as bad as the meat Packers yet. I hope more people decide to buy local meat and screw over these large companies (most are foreign owned anyways) and end this crazy shaft the consumer business their pulling on us.
GM makes garbage. 2020 seriera and already has issues.
Look on the bright side, no more cheap, crappy interiors in the trucks!
Been waiting for 4 months just to order a new Camaro. Already sold my ‘19 for what I originally paid for it.
crazy times in the used car market…
My 2019 LD in Summit white looks extra beautiful these days in my garage. Bought it in March 2020!
Luv my 2021 1500 custom chevy.
This is not a good situation. There is very few HD trucks at dealers in Canada. Presently I have been trying to buy a new HD 3500 since May with no success due to there being nothing available. I cannot even order one due to GM constraints.
The lot outside the plant in Flint is packed with these trucks. They probably just don’t have the parts to finish them all.
Why can’t we make chips here
Because the infrastructure doesn’t exist in the US at the scale necessary to meet the demand. And, even if it did, we can’t produce them cheaply enough.
American union workers think they have to make $125/hour and so the price of a chip would be far too high compared to the overseas counterparts.. its a pretty simple concept really..