The global semiconductor shortage continues to affect the automotive and other industries around the world. America’s largest automaker, General Motors, will reduce production at most North American assembly plants, while Ford Motor Company is also cutting production at a number of its plants.
General Motors will halt production next week at its Fort Wayne plant in Indiana and its Silao plant in Mexico, both of which build pickup trucks. In total, GM will be cutting production at eight of its plants this month, according to Reuters.
Most of the GM cuts are for a period of two weeks, while production of the Silverado 1500 and Sierra 1500 full-size pickups in Indiana and Mexico are expected to resume after a week of downtime on Sept. 13.
“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,” the company said in a statement Thursday, according to CNBC News.
Starting the week of September 6, Ford’s Dearborn, Michigan truck plant, which makes the ever-popular F-150 pickup truck, will operate one shift only.
F-150 production at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant in Missouri will remain down next week as well. Production of the Transit van will continue there.
And Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, which builds Super Duty pickup trucks, the Ford Expedition SUV and the Lincoln Navigator SUV, is dropping one shift and will operate on two shifts the weeks of Sept. 6 and 13.
“The global semiconductor shortage continues to affect Ford’s North American plants — along with automakers and other industries around the world,” Ford spokesperson Kelli Felker said in a statement, according to the Detroit News.
“Behind the scenes, we have teams working on how to maximize production, with a continued commitment to building every high-demand vehicle for our customers with the quality they expect.”
The automotive forecasting firm AutoForecast Solutions, estimates that, through Tuesday, the automotive industry globally has lost more than 7 million units of planned vehicle production.
