General Motors has extended its pause on production at various plants around the world because of the ongoing global semiconductor shortage.
The Detroit News reports that the company is extending the downtime through to the end of March at its San Luis Potosi plant in Mexico, which is responsible for building the Chevrolet Equinox and Trax and the GMC Terrain. It will also extend the downtime at its Fairfax, Kansas plant that builds the Cadillac XT4 and Chevrolet Malibu until at least mid-April, and alter production at the CAMI plant in Ontario that builds the Chevrolet Equinox until at least mid-March.
It’s not just North American plants that are impacted by the alterations to production as the Gravatai plant in Brazil where the Chevrolet Onix and Onix Plus are built will also take downtime in April and May.
Read More: GM To Cut Production At Four Factories Due To Global Chip Shortage
General Motors intends on making up for lost production later in the year but it remains to be seen if that will be possible given the nature of the shortage.
HIS Markit researchers believe the chip shortage will hit its bottom at the end of March but supplies will remain tight into the third quarter. The shortage is tipped to cost the automotive industry nearly 1 million units of production in the first quarter alone.
GM is trying to minimize the impact of the shortage on its most popular full-size truck and SUV models and therefore won’t alter their production.
