{"id":165649,"date":"2021-04-08T16:03:13","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T20:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=165649"},"modified":"2021-04-08T16:34:10","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T20:34:10","slug":"gm-ford-idle-more-plants-as-biden-meeting-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2021\/04\/gm-ford-idle-more-plants-as-biden-meeting-looms\/","title":{"rendered":"GM, Ford Idle Plants as Biden Meeting Looms"},"content":{"rendered":"
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GM is idling its Spring Hill, Tennessee plant due to the ongoing semiconductor shortage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The recent news from the Biden administration about its plans to alleviate the semiconductor shortage isn\u2019t helping General Motors or Ford today as the company announced more production cuts.<\/p>\n

GM extended its shutdown of the Lansing (Michigan) Grand River plant until April 26, which would put it at six weeks since the last time it produced a vehicle. The company\u2019s Spring Hill, Tennessee facility is going to shut down for two weeks beginning April 12.<\/p>\n

The Detroit-based company\u2019s shifted its available resources<\/strong><\/span><\/a> to ensure production of its highly profitable pickups and SUVs continues unaffected. Thus far, it\u2019s not been forced to idle any production of those vehicles due to chip shortages. They were affected by the winter storms that hammered Texas and other parts of the country last month.<\/p>\n

Additional closures<\/h3>\n

In addition to the just mentioned closures, CNBC.com reported, GM said the Lansing Delta plant that produces the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave near Lansing, Michigan will be down the week of April 19. Chevrolet Blazer will also be on hiatus at the Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico that same week.<\/p>\n

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General Motors’ Lansing Grand River facility is also seeing its shutdown extended to April 26.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The company also added time to the shutdowns at plants in Kansas and Canada that produce cars and crossovers through mid-May. They produce the Chevrolet Malibu sedan and Equinox and Cadillac XT4 crossover.<\/p>\n

Ford is also cutting more production<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, starting with tis Chicago Assembly Plant, Flat Rock (Michigan) Assembly Plant and part of its Kansas City facility next week. Ford plans, according to Reuters, to run during its traditional shut down periods this summer to help make up for lost production.<\/p>\n

Not that it\u2019s any consolation but it\u2019s not just high-volume producers being impacted. Porsche officials said they may have to slow production numbers to account for the scarcity of semiconductors, according to German publication Handelsblatt.<\/p>\n

Closures mean big money<\/h3>\n

Paul Jacobson, GM\u2019s new chief financial officer, said the company expected to take a $1.5 billion to $2 billion hit to adjusted EBIT due to the semiconductor issue. He noted the shortfall in parts to be temporary and that it won\u2019t impact any long-term plans or programs.<\/p>\n

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Ford is going to cut production at its Chicago assembly plant due to the chip shortage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, that was in February during the company\u2019s earnings call. There\u2019s not been a formal revision of that estimate beyond the $2 billion number since then. Ford officials offered up a similar estimate earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The Biden administration is scrambling to find ways to assist automakers. Part of that effort includes a meeting with The White House Monday, which is expected to GM Chief Executive Mary Barra and Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley plus leaders in the technology arena, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation implored the administration to take action<\/strong><\/span><\/a> to ensure this doesn\u2019t happen again. In the meantime, the shortage could cost the auto industry 1.28 million vehicles with slowdowns and shutdowns expected to last through the end of summer \u2014 at least.<\/p>\n

President Joe Biden is pushing for at least $37 billion<\/strong><\/span><\/a> for legislation to help boost U.S. semiconductor production. While encouraging, it fails to resolve today\u2019s issues. He also directed federal agencies to try to resolve or at least blunt the impact of the shortage in February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The recent news from the Biden administration about its plans to alleviate the semiconductor shortage isn\u2019t helping General Motors or Ford today as the company announced more production cuts. Leaders of the two makers are expected to meet with The White House Monday to discuss the issue as well. Get details at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4389,"featured_media":125563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,12],"tags":[],"make":[56,58],"post-state":[],"category_old":[118,150,151,123,131,299,248,243,132,284,125,297,139,148,128,291,288],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165649"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=165649"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=165649"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=165649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}