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GM Fort Wayne Plant To Pause Production During Week Of September 23rd

GM is temporarily pausing operations at its Fort Wayne Assembly light-duty truck plant, citing an unspecified supply constraint. The shutdown will be in effect for the week of September 23rd. It will be limited to one week and won’t impact operations at GM’s other two North American light-duty, full-size truck plants: Silao Assembly in Mexico and Oshawa Assembly in Ontario, Canada. Presumably, operations at the Flint Assembly plant in Michigan, which produces HD variants of the Silverado and Sierra, will also be uninterrupted.

GM Fort Wayne Plant To Pause Production During Week Of September 23rd

“Fort Wayne Assembly has paused production for one week due to a temporary supply-chain issue,” GM spokesperson Tara Kuhnen said in a statement to The Detroit News. “Supporting plants (Marion Metal, Grand Rapids and Lansing Grand River Stamping) are taking down weeks due to Fort Wayne Assembly. Specifics will be communicated to each plant as soon as details are available.”

Fort Wayne Assembly currently builds the Chevy Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 at a rate of more than 1,300 trucks per day, assisted by over 2,200 robots. Located in Roanoke, Indiana, the plant originally opened in 1986 and assumed the operations of the former Pontiac East Assembly plant in Pontiac, Michigan when it closed in 2009. Its workers are represented by the UAW Local 2209. It’s unclear whether this temporary shutdown will result in an increase in output from GM’s Canadian and Mexican truck plants.

GMC Sierra

This pause comes less than two years after a two-week shutdown at the same facility that began on March 27th, 2023. According to Cherry Weiland, the Fort Wayne facility’s assistant plant director, the purpose of last year’s production pause was to “help maintain optimal inventory levels.” GM wanted to “proactively” keep inventory within certain limits, targeting a 50- to 60-day supply. However, next week’s shutdown appears unrelated to maintaining inventory levels.

As a reminder, the Chevy Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 ride on the GM T1 platform and offer four engine options, including the turbocharged 2.7L I4 L3B gasoline TurboMax, the naturally aspirated 5.3L V8 L84 gasoline engine, the naturally aspirated 6.2L V8 L87 gasoline engine, and the 3.0L I6 LZ0 turbodiesel Duramax.

George is an automotive journalist with soft spots for classic GM muscle cars, Corvettes, and Geo.

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Comments

  1. Shortage of buyers?

    Reply
    1. Sure would be nice, for a change.

      Reply
    2. stuff is stacking on the lots hard here. even the dealer next to uber gated golf courses is stacking full of 90k tahoes and trucks. if that dealer is getting hammered its real bad. they are literally the last one to feel any buying trend changes (for the worse)

      historically they had no inventory. bored housewife would drive by randomly and drive back home with a new vehicle. weekly. then they would shift that brand new trade in to one of their satellite locations out in the boonies on the used side. actually somewhat impressive. but now the lot is full. everything is discounted (5k off 88k sure is enticing lol) and nothing in moving. oops

      Reply
    3. Nailed it. The Silverado is sporting a 107 days supply at the moment so that “shortage” has everything to with a lack of buyers.

      Reply
  2. Grand Rapids stamping closed in 2009.

    Reply
    1. I believe they’re referring to the lifter & axle plant in Grand Rapids.

      Reply
  3. Send them to Lansing to build more Traverse, they only last on the lot 3 days if not already spoken for.

    Reply
  4. In the current economy many people can’t fit a new vehicle into their budget. Vote Republican!

    Reply
  5. Phooey
    Must be out of room to store 25s built already and do not want to ship them quite yet to avoid putting to many 25s on the lot and have to put heavy incentives on 24s to move them.

    Reply
  6. Let the stacking begin. Bring the pricing down to a reasonable level and folks can afford to buy new trucks. The interest rate is bad enough driving monthly payments up and out of reach for the average buyer. Only going to get worse.

    Reply
  7. GM why not shut down the plant in Mexico and keep our American plants running..

    Reply
    1. SILAO IS SHUT DOWN ALSO

      Reply

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