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General Motors announced that it is temporarily halting production at eight North American factories because of a global semiconductor chip shortage. The chips, which are used in various car parts, have been hard to come by because of staff shortages at factories in Asia due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"COVID is driving supply constraints in countries that produce semiconductor chips," GM spokesman Dan Flores said. "But I can't say if it's because employees have a high rate of infection or if it's the government putting restrictions on plants due to the pandemic."
GM said that plants in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Silao, Mexico, will take a week off starting on Monday (September 6) and resume production on September 13. In addition, the Wentzville Assembly plant in Missouri, the Lansing Delta Township Assembly plant in Michigan, and the Spring Hill Assembly plant in Tennessee will have two weeks of downtime starting on Monday and should reopen on September 20.
The CAMI Assembly plant in Canada, the Ramos Assembly in Mexico, and the San Luis Potosi Assembly plant in Mexico will be shuttered from September 13 to September 27.
Some of the plants will remain open, giving technicians and mechanics time to repair and ship unfinished vehicles.
"During the downtime, we will repair and ship unfinished vehicles from many impacted plants, including Fort Wayne and Silao, to dealers to help meet the strong customer demand for our products," Flores said. "Although the situation remains complex and very fluid, we remain confident in our team's ability to continue finding creative solutions to minimize the impact on our highest-demand and capacity-constrained vehicles."