GM Makes Major Slash in 1Q Production
By Michelle Krebs December 12, 2008By Bill Visnic
How bad is it? General Motors Corp., currently hoping for "bridge" funding extended by the Bush administration to keep the company from imminent bankruptcy, isn't buying into any optimism about the potential for an economic turnaround -- the company announced today it is slashing a quarter-million units from its first-quarter 2009 production schedules.
It's an outsized reaction that projects a downbeat outlook for the U.S. auto market's prospects in early 2009.
The move affects practically all of GM's North American vehicle assembly plants. The 20 assembly plants affected include those producing some of GM's current best-selling models, including the Chevrolet Malibu (Fairfax, Kansas, and Orion, Michigan) and the company's four-model family of full-size crossovers, including the recently launched Chevrolet Traverse variant built in Spring Hill, Tenn.
Three assembly plants in Mexico and three plants in Canada are included in the first-quarter temporary idling, which GM says comprises some 30 percent of its entire North American assembly-plant volume.
"The speed and severity of the U.S. auto market's decline has been unprecedented in recent weeks as consumers reel from the collapse of the financial markets and the resulting lack of credit for vehicle financing," GM said in a release announcing the plant actions.
Photo by GM
Even production of the strong-selling Malibu will be cut back a bold and drastic first-quarter GM production cutback.
LEAVE A COMMENT