Photo: GM
The chip shortage that’s been wreaking havoc in the automotive industry isn’t going anywhere, and General Motors has pretty much confirmed that the constrained semiconductor inventory remains a huge problem.
The American carmaker revealed that its Fort Wayne Assembly plant would go offline next week and will remain so until July 11, simply because it doesn’t have enough chips to install on the vehicles it makes.
General Motors has more or less tried to sweeten the whole thing by explaining that since the third quarter of the last year, its North American production lines have been running at a stable speed. However, it’s not a secret the company has halted the manufacturing on several occasions at various plants, and every time, it was because of the lack of chips.
GM claims the short-term supply chain disruptions are causing the problems this time, and while it’s already working with suppliers to make sure the necessary inventory is prepared, shutting down the production at Fort Wayne is the only way to go.
The Indiana facility is responsible for the production of the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and the GMC Sierra 1500, and General Motors explains that it’ll rely on the production power elsewhere to make sure all vehicles arrive on time to customers.
The company is also building light-duty trucks in Mexico, while the Flint facility is in charge of manufacturing heavy-duty models.
At this point, General Motors hasn’t made any prediction as to when it hopes the chip shortage to come to an end, but for the time being, it’s pretty clear this is unlikely to happen this year. A minor recovery in the chip inventory is indeed likely to be recorded in the last quarter of the year, but the consensus right now appears to be that the crisis would continue until at least 2023 or even 2024 for some industry sectors.
General Motors has more or less tried to sweeten the whole thing by explaining that since the third quarter of the last year, its North American production lines have been running at a stable speed. However, it’s not a secret the company has halted the manufacturing on several occasions at various plants, and every time, it was because of the lack of chips.
GM claims the short-term supply chain disruptions are causing the problems this time, and while it’s already working with suppliers to make sure the necessary inventory is prepared, shutting down the production at Fort Wayne is the only way to go.
The Indiana facility is responsible for the production of the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and the GMC Sierra 1500, and General Motors explains that it’ll rely on the production power elsewhere to make sure all vehicles arrive on time to customers.
The company is also building light-duty trucks in Mexico, while the Flint facility is in charge of manufacturing heavy-duty models.
At this point, General Motors hasn’t made any prediction as to when it hopes the chip shortage to come to an end, but for the time being, it’s pretty clear this is unlikely to happen this year. A minor recovery in the chip inventory is indeed likely to be recorded in the last quarter of the year, but the consensus right now appears to be that the crisis would continue until at least 2023 or even 2024 for some industry sectors.
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