GM stopped work at its truck assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, for two weeks so dealerships would have enough stock. A spokesman for GM said that lately, production has gone up while demand has mostly stayed the same, which has led to more inventory. Fort Wayne makes the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra 1500. GM’s full-size truck facilities in Michigan, Canada, and Mexico will operate during the two-week Indiana pause. General Motors is getting ready for a two-week break at its Fort Wayne, Indiana, truck factory. A GM official said the Fort Wayne factory would close to “maintain optimal inventory levels with our customers” since it makes about 1300 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 vehicles daily. Word on the street is that the shutdown will start on March 27 and follow the rules of the local and national UAW collective bargaining agreements. GM says that the rise in inventory is because production has increased over the past month, and demand has stayed about the same. A report from Autoweek says that the stop is in line with what GM CFO Paul Jacobson said. Jacobson said the company wants 50 to 60 days’ inventory through 2023. During the two-week shutdown in Indiana, GM’s other full-size truck plants in Michigan, Canada, and Mexico will likely keep making trucks. A GM spokesman said the Fort Wayne plant always looks at and changes its production plans to ensure dealerships have enough cars in stock. The shutdown is planned for a significant time for making trucks and cars. It’s different from the problems automakers had with production in 2021, when issues with the supply chain, especially a lack of microchips, forced GM, Ford, and many other automakers to cut production plans drastically. As a consequence of this, the curve that represents supply and demand shifted to the opposite end of the spectrum. In the truck business, Ford stopped making electric F-150 Lightnings in February, likely because of a battery problem. Ford said one car “showed a battery problem during a standard Lightning pre-delivery quality test.”
