GM Is Forced to Idle a Pickup-Truck Plant in Mexico Amid U.S. Strike
October 01 2019 - 2:43PM
Dow Jones News
By Mike Colias
General Motors Co. said a parts shortage stemming from a United
Auto Workers strike in the U.S. forced it to idle a pickup-truck
factory in Mexico, cutting off the supply of GM's most-profitable
vehicles and further threatening to dent its bottom line.
GM has temporarily laid off about 6,000 workers at its truck
plant in Silao, Mexico, along with a transmission plant nearby, a
company spokesman confirmed. GM was forced to close the facilities
because parts shipments from the U.S., where factory workers remain
on strike, have dried up, he said.
The fallout on GM's Mexican operations illustrates the
interconnected nature of the auto industry's North American supply
chain. Large parts suppliers also have suffered from the halt of
GM's production, with some facing a weekly hit to the bottom line
of more than $10 million a week, JP Morgan said in a research note
Tuesday.
GM makes versions of its Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra
pickup trucks at the Mexico plant. Those models are GM's
top-selling U.S. vehicles and generate the bulk of the company's
global profit, analysts estimate.
GM also makes those trucks at factories in Indiana and Michigan,
which have been idled for more than two weeks after some 46,000
full-time UAW workers went on strike after a four-year labor
contract expired.
--Nora Naughton contributed to this article.
Write to Mike Colias at Mike.Colias@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 01, 2019 14:28 ET (18:28 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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