GM will finish and ship 30,000 midsize pickups by early July and increase production of heavy-duty pickups by approximately 1,000 units a month starting in mid-July. General Motors said its 2nd quarter financial results will be “significantly better” than executives previously projected, citing improved supplies of semiconductors and additional workarounds it has found to deal with the shortage.
“The global semiconductor shortage remains complex and very fluid, but the speed, agility and commitment of our team, including our dealers, has helped us find creative ways to satisfy customers,” Phil Kienle, GM’s vice president of North America manufacturing and labor relations, said in a statement. “Customer demand continues to be very strong, and GM’s engineering, supply chain and manufacturing teams have done a remarkable job maximizing production of high-demand and capacity-constrained vehicles.”
May 2021
GM to Restart Several Plants in Coming Month
General Motors plans to restart production at several assembly plants affected by the global microchip shortage over the next month. “The chip crisis remains fluid globally but the supply chain team has made strides to mitigate the impact,” said GM spokesman David Barnas.
– GM plans to resume production at CAMI Assembly in Ontario on June 14th which builds the popular Chevy Equinox.
– The San Luis Potosi Assembly (Equinox & Terrain) and the Ramos Arizpe Assembly (Blazer & Equinox) will reopen on May 31st.
– Lansing Grand River in Michigan will restart production of the Chevy Camaro June 21st. Cadillac CT4 and CT5 production will remain down through the week of June 28th, but limited production of the 2022 CT4-V Blackwing and CT5-V Blackwing will begin in early June.
– Fairfax Assembly in Kansas which builds the Chevy Malibu and Cadillac XT4 will remain down through at least the week of July 5th as planned.
Auto Glass Market Supply Chain Headwinds
The sporadic part shortages affecting the glass market has impacted the auto industry which are forecasted to continue through 2021 with signs of improvement only expected in Q1 of 2022. Some of the latest challenges include but are not limited to:
1) Disruption & high cost inflation in International Sea Freight & Logistics due to:
• Few containers available due to imbalance of trade (eg: US imports 100 containers but only exports 40).
• Increasing Prices (May 2021 World Container Index at $5,000 v $1,500 LY) with today’s market at $11,000 per container (>700% increase vs 2020)
• Port Congestion caused by Covid, Container shortage, Strikes and Suez Canal incident
• Shipping Companies being very selective with who they serve. Quotas allocated to shipping lane (ie: max 5 containers per week to Canada) and price at ‘Spot Buy’ rather than Contracted Rate.
• Poor Ocean Transit Reliability – with 6% cancelled.
2) Shortages/low stocks on PVB, Float and Components created by:
• Experiencing big, unpredictable demand swings post-Covid – plus issues described above meaning supply chains are not operating at usual lead-times.
• Texas extreme cold weather causing global plastic shortage.
• Declaration of “Force Majeure” from Eastman (Global PVB supplier) that have impacted mainly Pilkington and Vitro, causing knock-on effects to other suppliers.
• Pressure on Float glass due to high demand for Architectural Glass as building sector booms (More profitable than Automotive glass).
• Disruption in suppliers’ supply chains for components (like ADAS brackets) due to manufacturers bankruptcy (Spanish supplier close-down impacted Shatterprufe and AGC).
May 2021
April/May 2021 Used Vehicle Market Conditions
Average wholesale used vehicle prices continue to rise as overwhelming demand supersedes the dismal amount of supply. Average prices reached $14,000 in April and moved even higher in May to higher than $15,000. Even vehicle segments that normally experience minimal changes (compact autos) saw a sizeable increase in month-over-month percentages exemplifying the demand for all vehicle segments. Average vehicle segments have been well above pre-COVID levels consistently throughout 2021 and are anticipated to move even higher in the coming months.
Lordstown Motors Scales Back Production
Production of the Endurance truck, slated to begin production in September, will be at best approximately half of the originally anticipated production levels. According to their CEO Steve Burns, additional capital is necessary to execute on their plans. COVID-19 and industry-wide related issues is at fault for the increase in parts costs, expedited shipping costs, and third-party engineering resources.
May 2021
Ford 2021 Build Out Date Updates
Ford Bronco – 7/21/21
Ford Edge – 6/25/21
Ford F-150 – 5/28/21
Lincoln Nautilus – 7/2/21
May 2021
Ford Will Idle Both F-150 Plants for an Additional Two Weeks
Ford has announced that its Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan and the truck side of its Kansas City Assembly Plant in Missouri will be idled the weeks of May 31st and June 7th. They will also operate on a reduced schedule the week of June 14th. Ford executives have predicted the coming months will be the worst since the semiconductor shortage began. It expects to lose half of its typical production this quarter, and expects to lose a total of $1.1 million vehicles in 2021. The shortage will cost it $2.5 billion this year. Ford has been parking partially-built F-150s and other models as they await the hard-to-find chips. At the end of the first quarter, Ford said it had about 22,000 vehicles partially built but missing components.
May 2021
Stellantis Extends Shutdown at Ontario Minivan Plant
The Windsor Assembly Plant hasn’t run since March 29 as Stellantis grapples with a microchip shortage. Stellantis is idling this plant for an additional week due to the ongoing global microchip shortage. Vehicles impacted include the Pacifica, Grand Caravan, and Voyager.
Additional GM Plant Down Times
The Cami Plant that produces the Equinox will now be down thru the week of 6/28 and due to this, GM is working to move all orders that were scheduled to build at this plant and move them to the Ramos plant in Mexico.
The SLP Plant in Mexico which produces the Terrain model is also now down for the weeks of 5/17 and 5/24.
The Fairfax Plant is down 5/10-7/5 which produces Malibu and Cadillac XT4.
The Lansing Grand River Plant which produces the Cadillac CT4 & CT5 will now be down from 5/10-6/28.
The Springfield Plant which produces medium duty Silverados will be down the weeks of 5/24, 7/5, and 7/12.
The Wentzville Plant which produces the Express/Savana vans is down now thru 7/12. The Canyon and Colorado models which are also produced at this plant is down from 5/24-7/12.
May 2021
GM Extends Downtime in Kansas and Michigan
General Motors has extended downtime at Fairfax Assembly in Kansas which builds the Cadillac XT4 and Chevy Malibu through at least July 5th and will curtail production at Lansing Grand River in Michigan beginning next week, the automaker said Monday. The Lansing Grand River plant produces the Cadillac CT4/CT5 as well as the Chevy Camaro.
Industrywide, the chip crisis eliminated 121,000 vehicles from the North America production schedule last week, according to AutoForecast Solutions’ tally. GM lost 79,600 vehicles.
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