General Motors Running Overtime At Some U.S. Plants As Chip Supply Improves

General Motors is running overtime at several of its North American plants this week as the automaker’s access to semiconductor chips continues to improve.
Speaking to The Detroit News on Monday, General Motors spokesman Dan Flores said the automaker is “currently seeing a better flow of semiconductors in our supply chain,” with nearly all of its North American plants currently running at regular capacity. A handful of plants are also running weekend overtime shifts, he said.“We have made some weekend overtime scheduling adjustments at several of our plants in November and December,” Flores told The Detroit News. “This includes Arlington, Fort Wayne, Wentzville, Lansing Delta Township, Lansing Grand River and Silao, which have been working select weekend overtime shifts.”
Two North American GM plants remain offline – however these shutdowns are unrelated to the semiconductor chip shortage. The automaker’s Wentzville Assembly plant in Missouri is down for the month of December as the automaker performs renovations in preparation for the launch of the next-generation 2023 Chevy Colorado and 2023 GMC Canyon. The GM Lake Orion Assembly plant also remains offline as the automaker continues to work through the Chevy Bolt EV and Bolt EUV battery fire recall.GM has grappled with countless plant shutdowns this year due to the semiconductor shortage. The automaker has prioritized getting chips to its most popular and profitable vehicles amid the shortage, which include its full-size pickup trucks like the Chevy Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 and full-size SUVs like the Chevy Tahoe/Suburban and GMC Yukon/Yukon XL.
Analysts from JPMorgan said recently they expect the chip shortage to drag on into 2022, with a major improvement in the supply expected by mid-year. It also expects most of the effects from chip shortage to have dissipated by 2023 as U.S. and European fabrication output increases in the next 12 months or so.With more GM plants coming back online, customers and dealerships should begin to observe an improvement in vehicle inventory. The automaker has run on extremely limited inventory throughout the chip shortage, which, when coupled with higher than usual demand, has reduced incentive spending and increased its average transaction prices significantly.