Feb. 4, 2021—General Motors is the latest automaker to shut down production due to the global shortage of semiconductor chips, Reuters reported.
Assembly plants located in Fairfax, Kansas; Ingersoll, Ontario; and San Luis Potosi, Mexico will cut production entirely during the week of Feb. 8. A fourth plant, located in Bupyeong, South Korea will run at half capacity that same week.
GM did not disclose how much volume it would lose or which supplier was affected by the chip shortage, but said the focus has been on keeping production running at plants building the highest-profit vehicles - full-size pickup trucks and SUVs as well as the Chevrolet Corvette sports car. GM said it intends to make up as much lost production as possible.
“Despite our mitigation efforts, the semiconductor shortage will impact GM production in 2021,” GM spokesman David Barnas told Reuters in a statement.
Affected GM vehicles include the Chevrolet Malibu sedan, Cadillac XT4 SUV, Chevy Equinox and Trax, and GMC Terrain SUVs and the Buick Encore small crossover vehicle.
The chip shortage is expected to cause production in the global auto sector to be 672,000 vehicles lower than anticipated in the first quarter, IHS Markit said on Wednesday.
