General Motors Corp (GM) announced another round of production cuts on Monday that affect its gasoline-guzzling truck and sport utility vehicle (SUV) production lines.
The troubled US automaker said the output cuts would result in a drop of production of 117,000 units between now and the end of the year.
The cuts will fall heavily on GM’s giant Hummer brand, which has suffered falling sales as gasoline prices have jumped higher this year.
The automaker plans to cut production at its main Hummer plant by one third and bring the total number of cuts to more than 287,000 units, or very close to the goal of 300,000 outlined last month by GM chairman Richard Wagoner.
“The cuts are a continuation of earlier announcements,” said GM spokesman Tony Sapienza. “It’s incremental to the 170,000 units that we announced last month.”
A slowing US economy, which has been roiled by a lingering housing market slump, has hit sales of large trucks and SUVs in recent months.
GM said its plants at Moraine, Ohio, and Shreveport, Louisiana, would be affected by the cuts.
In addition, GM is taking steps to reduce truck production at plants in Fort Wayne, Indiana, at a Canadian plant in Oshawa, Ontario, and Silao, Mexico.
GM also will shut down production for several weeks this autumn at its truck plants in Flint and Pontiac, Michigan, Sapienza said.
The giant automaker had previously identified plans for cutting about 170,000 trucks and SUVs from its production schedules by the end of the year.
GM has also reached an agreement with Canadian auto workers that could defuse a dispute ignited by the automaker’s plans to close its Oshawa truck plant as part of a reduction in its truck production.
The agreement was reached after GM agreed to add some new shifts at the Canadian plant, union officials said.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS