DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp <GM.N> said on Monday two more assembly plants were running out of parts and would have to be idled as the impact from a week-long strike against supplier American Axle & Manufacturing <AXL.N> widened for the No. 1 U.S. automaker.
By Kevin Krolicki
DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp <GM.N> said on Monday two more assembly plants were running out of parts and would have to be idled as the impact from a week-long strike against supplier American Axle & Manufacturing <AXL.N> widened for the No. 1 U.S. automaker.
Six GM assembly plants in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Ontario, Canada, have either been idled or could be idled as early as Tuesday because of parts shortages, the automaker said in a statement.
The temporary factory closures mean 13,700 GM workers, or almost 20 percent of its blue-collar work force, could be laid off this week because of the strike against American Axle by the United Auto Workers union.
!ADVERTISEMENT!American Axle relies on GM for almost 80 percent of its sales and the GM plant idlings announced on Monday showed the impact of the strike-related shutdown of its U.S. plants starting to spread across the automaker's product line.
Last week, GM took steps to idle production of its GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado pickup trucks at four plants.
GM said on Monday it also expected to have to idle production at a Moraine, Ohio, plant that assembles SUVs, including the Chevrolet Trailblazer and GMC Envoy.
In addition, GM said it expected a Mishawaka, Indiana, plant run by Humvee maker AM General to run out of parts for its military-inspired Hummer H2 by Tuesday.
Other GM facilities at risk due to their reliance on American Axle parts include plants devoted to SUV production in Arlington, Texas; Janesville, Wisconsin; and Silao, Mexico.
Analysts have said a short work stoppage could allow GM to run down inventories of trucks and sport utility vehicles, but have cautioned that a longer disruption could be costly.
About 3,600 UAW-represented workers in Michigan and New York went on strike last Tuesday against American Axle and talks between the two sides had not resumed as of Monday.
Earlier, a senior GM sales executive said the automaker had enough inventory of full-size pickup trucks for two to three months despite the production shutdown. "We have enough for 60 (to) 90 days easy," GM's head of North American sales, Mark LaNeve, said on a conference call.
The slump in U.S. auto sales and GM's own showroom traffic in recent months takes some of the pressure off the automaker as more of its plants idle, analysts have said.
Sales at GM tumbled 16 percent in February after adjusting for the number of sales days, according to data released on Monday. Sales were down 20 percent for GM's trucks, the area of its lineup where exposure to American Axle is highest.
Detroit-based American Axle was spun off from GM in 1994. It says it needs the UAW to accept steep concessions on wages and benefits in order to keep production in the United States.
In a parallel development, GM's smaller rival, Chrysler LLC, has faced its own strike-related plant closure.
Chrysler stopped work at a Windsor, Ontario, minivan plant on Friday because of a shortage of parts from TRW Automotive Holdings Corp <TRW.N>, the target of a strike by the Canadian Auto Workers union.
Chrysler's North American sales chief, Steve Landry, on Monday told reporters he was hopeful that supplier strike could be resolved and said he saw no immediate impact on Chrysler's minivan sales because of the work stoppage.
(Editing by Richard Chang and Braden Reddall)
