FCA Canada says it will idle its Windsor Assembly Plant the week of Feb. 11, halting minivan production there.
A company spokeswoman said the automaker is simply moving week of scheduled downtime in April into February. But, she didn't say why. Normal production is scheduled to resume Feb. 18, she said.
The upcoming week-long shutdown will be the third temporary closure of the new year. The plant did not operate the first two weeks of January in order to adjust inventories, the company said.
About 6,000 employees at Windsor Assembly build the Dodge Grand Caravan, Chrysler Pacifica and the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid on three shifts per day, usually six days per week.
Running at full volume, the plant produces nearly 1,500 minivans per day.
Pacifica sales in the United States in 2018 were unchanged at 118,322, off just 48 units from the year before. But, they were down 19.8 per cent in December 2018. Caravan sales were up 21.5 per cent to 151,927 units in 2018 and up a whopping 46.4 per cent to 9,694 in December alone when compared to the same month in 2017.
In Canada, Pacifica sales were down three per cent to 5,999 in 2018 but were down 68 per cent in December. Caravan sales, meanwhile, were down 31.3 per cent to 32,253 for the year and off 49.5 per cent in December 2018 when compared to the year before.
