Following in the footsteps of Ford and Honda , General Motors has announced it will be boosting production to meet increased demand. GM will initially ramp up production at two North American factories, but others could soon follow.
GM is will add shifts and overtime at its Lordstown, Ohio and CAMI, Ontario production plants. GM’s Lordstown plant produces the Chevrolet Cobalt – one of the 10-best sellers under the government’s cash for clunkers program – and the CAMI plant produces the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain. GM says it has also cancelled planned downtime at the two factories.
According to GM, the added production will send 1,350 UAW and CAW employees back to work.
Strong demand for the Chevrolet HHR, Colorado, Camaro, Buick LaCrosse, GMC Canyon and Cadillac CTS Wagon and SRX will likely result in increased production at GM’s other North American plants.
“It’s gratifying to see demand for our products accelerate and we are extremely lean with inventories on our launch products like Camaro, Equinox, LaCrosse, SRX, CTS Wagon and Terrain,†said Mark LaNeve, vice president, U.S. sales. “During the third quarter 2009, we’ve added production which will result in 35 percent increase over the second quarter. With today’s announcement of further additions, the fourth quarter will now be at least 20 percent higher than the third quarter, which is a very positive trend.â€
GM says about 60,000 vehicles have been added to the company’s production schedule so far.
