WDET News
- GM Cuts Production By 250,000
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Dec 13, 2008Automotive & Business
General Motors announced Friday that it will cut first quarter vehicle production by 250-thousand units. Detroit Public Radio’s Jerome Vaughn has more.
SOQ
GM officials say the global financial crisis, falling consumer confidence and tightening credit markets have hurt demand for new cars and trucks.
GM sales fell 41 percent in November and 45 percent in October – compared to 2007 figures. In response, the Detroit automaker is temporarily shutting production lines at 20 plants in the U-S, Canada and Mexico.
GM spokesperson Chris Lee.
“Plants will take various numbers of down weeks throughout the quarter – and as a result in North America on average our plants will be down approximately 30 percent of the first quarter in 2009.”
Some of the affected plants will be closed from the end of this month until early February.
The announcement of the production cuts was made just hours after the U-S Senate rejected a 14 billion dollar federal loan plan for Detroit’s automakers.