GM plant in Arlington will shut down for 3 weeks
By BOB COX
Star-Telegram staff writer
General Motors will halt production of sport utility vehicles at its Arlington assembly plant for three weeks beginning April 14, idling 2,400 workers as the company works to balance inventories with consumer demand, GM confirmed Friday.
The workers, most represented by the United Auto Workers, will continue to receive most of their pay through labor-contract provisions.
Sales of all five models built in Arlington dropped sharply in March from year-ago levels and new orders from dealers have slowed, said Wendi Sabo, a spokeswoman for the Arlington plant.
Sabo said salaried employees will continue to report for work, and some union-represented team leaders will probably be called in for training during the shutdown.
Sabo said the goal is to reduce the number of unsold vehicles. GM had a 106-day supply of unsold SUVs of all sizes at the end of March, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing a report by Ward's Automotive Group.
"All large GM SUVs, in fact all large SUVs, did pretty poor in March," said Jessica Caldwell, auto-industry analyst with the Edmunds.com information service.
Additionally, GM leaders have decided to divert the Arlington plant's supply of truck axles to other plants in order to augment production of pickups affected by the ongoing UAW strike against American Axle, Sabo said. The Arlington plant has continued to produce during the strike.
GM pickup inventories are also high, according to Ward's, with a 118-day supply.
Caldwell said GM may have decided to boost pickup production and inventories in anticipation of Ford and Dodge rolling out new models this year.
"Even though they're heavily discounted, they may have a better opportunity of selling pickups than SUVs," Caldwell said. When new, heavily promoted models come to market, she said, it often causes an increase in sales for the whole market segment.
Other than small fuel-efficient models and the new crossovers, all SUV sales have slipped dramatically with recent gasoline price increases.
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