General Motors will suspend Cruze output

The Detroit based automaker – General Motors will suspend production at its factory in Lordstown, Ohio that assembles Chevrolet Cruze for at least one week to avoid oversupply, as recovering Japanese inventories and slow fall sales have lessened demand for the car.

“We don’t want to overstock inventory and have them collecting dust,” said Jim Graham, president of Local 1112 of the United Auto Workers.
“We’re anticipating a sales drop between November and April, so rather than overproduce, we’ll adjust the inventory.”

The Lordstown, Ohio, plant will stop output for the week of Nov. 28, GM spokesman Chris Lee said.
Lordstown’s UAW Local 1714 website posted the details, and says the production of the Cruze will resume on December 5th.

With the supply of Cruzes around 70 days at the daily sales rate – 60 days is the general industry goal – union officials said GM was acting to control stockpiles, something it failed to do during the 2008-09 recession.

In other news, the Lordstown facility will build the diesel Cruze from 2013, after a five million investment into the facility. The $5.5 million will be used to modify both the stamping and the body shop for the diesel engine.

Customers have already bought more than 200,000 Cruzes this year, compared with 213,000 purchases in Cobalt’s top sales year. Cruze is the ninth-best-selling vehicle in the U.S. this year, and the sixth-ranking car.