The General Motors Corp. has plans of trimming down the production of its largest pickup trucks by over 17 percent at a Michigan plant. This decision has been highly influenced by the high gasoline prices and a crimped demand for trucks along with a decline in the housing market.
According to GM spokesman Tom Wickham, this coming September, the factory of Pontiac in Michigan will start to reduce hourly output of the one-ton and three-quarter-ton Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra to 45 pickups from 54.5. Although this is the case, GM hasn’t decided on how many jobs will be affected by this move. As of the moment, the plant has about 2,600 workers.
Wickham said that there are apparently no reductions planned at the GM’s Fort Wayne Truck Assembly Plant although it also produces full-sized pickups.
To act upon the changes in demand, GM is cutting the production following a 6.9 percent first-half drop in its U.S. sales of light trucks. This will include declines of 2 percent for the Silverado and 2.3 percent for the Sierra. As for the larger version of pickups from the half-ton model, the company has chosen not to disclose the results yet.
Gasoline prices in the U.S. have risen for over 33 percent in the past two years. As a result, many consumers have opted to use cars and smaller trucks. Last January, GM in Detroit already cut production on its largest sports vehicles—the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yucon at their GM plants in Mexico, Wisconsin, and Texas.
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