General Motors is planning to shut most of its US vehicle assembly plants for up to nine weeks this summer, US media reports said last night.
Both NBC and ABC’s evening national news bulletins, citing company sources, said the move would force workers to take unplanned holidays as the automaker struggles to reduce finished vehicle stocks.
GM was also reported to be planning to miss a $US1bn bond repayment due on 1 June.
Spokeswoman Renee Rashid-Merem told Reuters GM was working to offer a bond exchange that would reduce the US$28bn in debt owed to bondholders. Such an exchange could still be in progress as of 1 June, precluding the bond payment, she said.
“Should we be required to finish our restructuring within the court process, the 1 June bond payment would be unlikely as well,” Rashid-Merem said in a statement to Reuters.

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By GlobalDataGM chief financial officer Ray Young had earlier been quoted as telling the Wall Street Journal that the company was not planning on making its 1 June bond payment, the news agency noted.
Bondholders seen rejecting GM’s equity-for-debt offer