A salesman wearing a protective mask helps a customer see General Motors ’Chevrolet vehicles on sale at a car dealership in Grove City, Ohio, on Saturday, August 15, 2020.
Ty Wright | Bloomberg | Getty Images
General Motors became the last automaker affected by the global shortage of semiconductor chips, as the U.S. automaker said Wednesday it will withdraw production next week at four assembly plants .
GM said it will withdraw production completely during the week of Feb. 8 at the Fairfax, Kansas plants; Ingersoll, Ontario; and Potosí San Luis, Mexico. This week it will also run its Bupyeong 2 plant in South Korea at medium capacity.
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 the plants that build the most profitable vehicles. : full size vans and SUV Chevrolet Corvette sports car. GM said it intends to recover as much lost production as possible.
“Despite our mitigation efforts, the shortage of semiconductors will affect GM production in 2021,” GM spokesman David Barnas told Reuters in a statement.
“The supply of semiconductors for the global automotive industry remains very fluid,” he added. “Our supply chain organization works closely with our supply base to find solutions to the semiconductor requirements of our suppliers and to mitigate impacts on GM.”
Affected GM vehicles include the Chevrolet Malibu sedan, the Cadillac XT4 SUV, the Chevy Equinox and Trax, and the GMC Terrain SUVs and the small Buick Encore crossover vehicle.
The shortage of chips has led several automakers, including Volkswagen AG, Ford Motor Co., Subaru Corp, Toyota Motor, Nissan Motor and Stellantis NV, to reduce vehicle production.