GM restarts plants affected by semiconductor chip shortage

General Motors said on Thursday it would restart production at five assembly plants around the world that were halted due to the scarcity of semiconductor chips.

GM said the plants that are set to reopen are four plants in the United States, Mexico and Canada starting next week.

After being shut down since 8 February, the CAMI Assembly in Ontario, where the Chevrolet Equinox is built, will resume production earlier than expected on June 14 and run through 2 July until a scheduled two-week summer shutdown period.

Production of the Chevrolet Camaro at the Lansing Grand River plant will also begin earlier than expected on 21 June. That plant has been down since 10 May.

However, Cadillac CT4 and CT5 production there will remain down through the week of 28 June 28, which GM previously announced. The plant will produce the limited 2022 model year Cadillac Black Wing production in early June.

Two plants in Mexico will resume production next week and will once again assemble the Chevrolet Equinox, GMC Terrain and Chevrolet Blazer.

Next week, GM will also resume full production at its Bupyeong 1 Assembly in Korea, which had been operating at 50% capacity since late April.

Another GM plant in Korea that was working at less capacity would start assembling vehicles in two shifts.

The return comes after months of GM and other automakers struggling with a shortage that is expected to cost the industry globally $110bn and potential production of 3.9m units for the year, according to the latest estimates from global consulting firm AlixPartners.