General Motors said on Thursday that 15 of its 30 vehicle assembly plants in North America will work overtime this weekend to make up for lost production during last week’s widespread power cuts, Reuters reported.
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“Mostly the plants that lost production are going to work some form of overtime to make up,” GM spokesman Dan Flores told Reuters.
Nine of GM’s 30 North American vehicle assembly plants lost power during the blackout, which hit at least eight US states and part of Canada, including the key manufacturing states of Michigan and Ohio and the province of Ontario, the news agency said.
Reuters noted that most of GM’s plants returned to full production on Monday, except its plants in Ontario, where the government urged business to conserve energy in an attempt to return the power system to normal after the blackout.
To comply with Ontario’s request, GM scaled back production this week at its Oshawa, Ontario, car plants, where it makes the Chevrolet Impala, Buick Regal and Buick Century sedans and the Chevrolet Monte Carlo coupe but full production of GM’s highly profitable pickups, such as the Chevrolet Silverado, continued this week, the report added.
Flores told Reuters GM has permission to run its Oshawa car and truck plants on overtime this weekend.
“Much of the industry has got the approval to work this weekend,” Flores reportedly said.
Next week, six of GM’s US car and truck plants are scheduled to work overtime, Reuters said, adding that the Doraville, Georgia, minivan plant, home of the Chevrolet Venture and the Pontiac Montana, will be shut to cut inventories of unsold vehicles.
According to Reuters, GM declined to disclose how much production or money it lost during the blackout, citing competitive reasons.
But Flores did tell the news agency that GM expects to make up the lost production of cars and trucks by the end of the third quarter, resulting in minimal impact on the company’s earnings from the power cuts.
