General Motors has halted production at four of its North American assembly plants while it assesses the effect on its supply chain from the recent Japanese earthquake.
Manufacturing is expected to be down for two weeks from today (25 April) at Spring Hill, Tennessee.; Oshawa Flex assembly, Canada; Lordstown, Ohio; and Fairfax, Kansas.
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"This temporary adjustment is not expected to have any material impact on GM's full-year production plans in North America. In addition, the company does not expect a material impact to its second quarter or full-year financial results for GM North America," the automaker said in a statement.
Automotive chipmaker Renesas Electronics last week announced a planned resumption of at least partial production from Friday (22 April) at its earthquake-hit Kumamoto plant in southern Japan.
Renesas, which controls almost 40% of the global market for microcontroller chips used in vehicles, also said it aimed to fully resume operations at the plant as early as possible. The Kumamoto plant had been offline since a series of earthquakes in southern Japan the previous week measuring up to 7.3 magnitude.
The company had confirmed damage to some equipment at the plant, but the extent of the damage was smaller than the aftermath of a big 2011 quake that halted its plants in northeastern Japan, a spokeswoman said.
