GM to Shut Down 14 Plants on Monday

The bankruptcy filing General Motors is going to announce on Monday will obviously have serious consequences over the American auto sector. According to a report by the Associated Press, the US car giant will announce the closure of 14 plants, just like it hinted back in April.

As we reported earlier today, General Motors will file for Chapter 11 protection on Monday, with most of its assets to be transferred to a new entity. The company hasn't announced the plants to be shuttered but, according to the aforementioned source, they will include four vehicle assembly facilities, parts stamping, engine and transmission factories.

According to the initial restructuring plans, GM aims to close the doors of 16 United States facilities by the end of 2010, which translates into a massive job cut of around 21,000 employees. The company yesterday announced that two of them be kept alive to build small and compact cars as well as stampings for these particular models, following the agreement GM has reached with the United Auto Workers (UAW).

The American manufacturer said last month that it will shed 13 production facilities to reduce production by 190,000 units. Nevertheless, facilities which are assembling new or redesigned vehicles belonging to GM's four core brands, including Chevrolet Camaro, Buick LaCrosse, Chevrolet Equinox and Cadillc SRX, will not be affected by these measures.

"We're taking aggressive steps to accelerate our inventory initiatives that have worked well since the first of the year. While sales have been performing at or close to our plan estimates, and dealer inventories have been reduced accordingly, we want to more closely align our inventories with even more conservative market assumptions," Troy Clarke, GM North America president said in a statement rolled out in April.