GM trimming production at 6 pickup and SUV plants

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Aug 23, 2007 | by Bloomberg News

General Motors Corp. is trimming production at six plants that make large pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles as the biggest U.S. automaker moves to clear dealer lots in a sales decline.

The factories, in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, will eliminate previously scheduled overtime the rest of this year for models such as the Chevrolet Suburban SUV and GMC Sierra pickup, company spokesman Tom Wickham said in an interview today. The reductions, which he declined to detail, began this week.

"Those vehicle sales are slumping," said David Leiker, an auto- parts analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. in Milwaukee, who was expecting a fourth-quarter cut in output by Detroit-based GM. "The fact that they are doing it earlier indicates that the sales trend is getting weaker and they couldn't wait."

GM already offers no-interest loans for as long as five years and rebates as high as $4,000 on light-truck models after July sales declines including 29 percent on Chevy Silverado large pickups. Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said last week that pickup sales were improving this month because of the incentives.

The factories affected are in Arlington, Texas; Janesville, Wis.; consin; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Indiana; Flint, Mich.; Michigan; Oshawa, Ontario, in Canada; and Silao, Mexico, Wickham said.