General Motors announced today that they would be suspending production at their Shreveport Louisiana production facility next week (March 21st) due to a parts shortage caused by the earthquake and ensuing tsunami in Japan.
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When the natural disasters hit Japan last week, followed by a string of nuclear power plant explosions caused by the earthquake, analysts expected that the biggest problem for US automaker would be electrical components. GM has not gone into any detail as to the exact cause, but one could surmise that it is probably something related to the electrical systems of the vehicles produced at the plant. GM has, however, stated that they are not sure when the plant will resume production.
The Shreveport Assembly Plant is currently responsible for the GMC Canyon and Chevrolet Colorado – two of the company’s worst selling models. In the past, Shreveport has been responsible for popular models like the Hummer H3, the GMC Sonoma, the Chevy S-10 and the high performance GMC Syclone but as the popularity of GM’s small trucks has faded, so has the production at Shreveport.
The Colorado and Canyon accounted for less than 3,500 units last month and while that number is up substantially from what these compact pickups sold during the same period of time last year, they are still among GM’s less popular models in terms of sales. GM has also stated that they have “sufficient vehicles to meet customer demand”, so it sounds like the company is in no rush to get production back underway in the wake of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
The Shreveport plant is scheduled to be shuttered for good sometime during the 2012 calendar year.
Other GM News:
GM donates $750,000 to Japanese earthquake relief efforts
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GM issues Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac SRX recall for defroster issues
GM planning to add 2nd shift for Volt production in 2012
Chevrolet Volt priced for the European market
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