GM idles full-size pickup truck production for 2 weeks

[kostby]

Quote »General Motors has announced that it will idle three of its plants that produce the company's full-size trucks — the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. The plants — located in Pontiac, Michigan; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Oshawa, Ontario — will be idled for two weeks beginning on December 31st.The halt in production is intended to prevent excess inventory. "The latest cuts will help us maintain manageable inventory levels," Tom Wickham, a spokesman for GM said. "It's better to have a tight supply on product, as opposed to too much that may end up being discounted at a later date with excessive incentives."GM announced earlier today that it would trim production in the first quarter of 2008 by 11%.I've read that the housing construction slump is affecting full-size pickup truck sales for all manufacturers.Unfortunately, I suppose this affects you, Sheldon (scherry2)?Link to source --> http://www.leftlanenews.com/gm....html

[NibCrom]

Hopefully this will work out for the best for GM in the long run.

[Stang2Vibe]

Just a necessary economic tweak on GM's part. Any manufacturer of any product would do the same. If the market becomes saturated with excess widgets, why keep making more widgets?I think several factors forced this decision. Surplus product is a likely result of widespread paranoia regarding gasoline prices, add to that the current housing crunch, and December and January are traditionally the slowest sales months for new autos. The auto industry as a whole is slow right now but should pick up again in 2-3 months.

[scherry2]

yes it does. an extra week and a half. since we have dec 21 thru jan 1 off any way.a shut down is better than slowing the line speed down, redistributing work and laying people off. stang2vibe is right. I've been thru this before in the 80's.its the cyclical nature of tha auto industry.

[KNINE]

[QUOTE=Stang2Vibe]Just a necessary economic tweak on GM's part. Any manufacturer of any product would do the same. If the market becomes saturated with excess widgets, why keep making more widgets?QUOTE]This is what happened to Chrysler. They kept producing more vehicles than people were buying, just to brag that their production numbers were up. Then they got stuck with a lot of vehicles that they couldn't sell. The result was massive rebates and heavy profit loss. I say good for GM for making a move to keep the company healthy.