Ford and GM to halt production at two Michigan plants due to parts shortages

March 31 (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co (FN) and General Motors (GM.N) will each halt production at a Michigan plant next week due to parts shortages, the two companies said separately on Thursday.

No. 2 U.S. automaker Ford said it will suspend production next week at its Flat Rock assembly plant, where it builds the Mustang, due to global semiconductor shortages.

GM said that due to a temporary parts shortage, it will cancel production next week at Lansing Grand River Assembly, where it builds the Cadillac CT4, Cadillac CT5 and Chevrolet Camaro. GM said the production shutdown was unrelated to the chips but did not provide further details.

The auto industry is grappling with a global chip shortage triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing companies to cut production, although high car prices have partially offset the financial impact.

Ford warned last month that the chip shortage would lead to lower vehicle volumes in the current quarter. Read more Last month, Ford halted production at its Kansas City assembly plant that makes F-150 pickup trucks for a week due to chip shortages. Read more

Ford, based in Dearborn, Michigan, said production at its other North American plants would continue as normal.

Last week, GM announced it would halt production for two weeks at an assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which builds the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 pickup trucks, starting April 4, in due to the shortage of semiconductor chips.

Reporting by Kannaki Deka in Bengaluru and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi and Leslie Adler

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