GM Is Forced to Idle a Pickup-Truck Plant in Mexico Amid U.S. Strike

By Mike Colias 

General Motors Co. said a parts shortage stemming from a United Auto Workers strike in the U.S. forced it to idle a pickup-truck factory in Mexico, cutting off the supply of GM's most-profitable vehicles and further threatening to dent its bottom line.

GM has temporarily laid off about 6,000 workers at its truck plant in Silao, Mexico, along with a transmission plant nearby, a company spokesman confirmed. GM was forced to close the facilities because parts shipments from the U.S., where factory workers remain on strike, have dried up, he said.

The fallout on GM's Mexican operations illustrates the interconnected nature of the auto industry's North American supply chain. Large parts suppliers also have suffered from the halt of GM's production, with some facing a weekly hit to the bottom line of more than $10 million a week, JP Morgan said in a research note Tuesday.

GM makes versions of its Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks at the Mexico plant. Those models are GM's top-selling U.S. vehicles and generate the bulk of the company's global profit, analysts estimate.

GM also makes those trucks at factories in Indiana and Michigan, which have been idled for more than two weeks after some 46,000 full-time UAW workers went on strike after a four-year labor contract expired.

--Nora Naughton contributed to this article.

Write to Mike Colias at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 01, 2019 14:28 ET (18:28 GMT)

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