GM to restart CT4, CT5, Camaro output in U.S., but not Ontario Equinox production

DETROIT — General Motors plans to restart production at Lansing Grand River Assembly next week, the automaker said Monday. Production at the plant has been canceled since March 15 as a result of the global microchip shortage.

Production at the Michigan plant, which builds the Cadillac CT4 and CT5 sedans and the Chevrolet Camaro sports car, is slated to resume May 3. Some areas of the plant will run on partial shifts this week to support general assembly next week, GM said.

GM's assembly plants in Bupyeong, Korea, which export to the U.S. the Buick Encore, Chevy Trailblazer and Chevy Trax, resumed production on one shift Monday after downtime last week.

The chip shortage has crippled the industry for months. At the end of March, U.S. light-vehicle inventory had shrunk to 2.4 million vehicles, the fewest in more than a decade, according to LMC Automotive.

LMC expects the chip shortage to slash North American production by nearly 550,000 vehicles in the first half of 2021. Automakers won't be able to make up even one-third of that loss before 2022, LMC said.

• CAMI Assembly in Ingersoll, Ontario, which builds the Chevy Equinox, and Fairfax Assembly in Kansas, which builds the Cadillac XT4 and Chevy Malibu: Down since Feb. 8 through at least the week of May 10.
• Wentzville Assembly in Missouri, which builds the Chevy Colorado and Express and GMC Canyon and Savana: Temporarily moving to two shifts from three beginning this week until the plant goes down for a scheduled launch changeover for the Colorado and Canyon on May 24.
• Gravatai in Brazil, which builds the Chevy Onix and Onix Plus: Down for all of April and May.