NorthAm auto summer shutdowns begin next week

Market: Coking coal, Metals, Petrochemicals
22/06/23

Most North American automakers are moving ahead with their summer shutdown schedule even as the cadence is shorter than usual.

Nissan's three US-based auto plants and Kia's Georgia compact utility vehicle and sedan plant will close from 26 June through 7 July.

General Motors (GM) will take down some of its US plants the 3 July week, saying its Bowling Green, Factory Zero, Ft Wayne, Lansing Grand River, Spring Hill and Wentzville plants will take outages. Those plants produce midsize pickups trucks, full-size pickup trucks, full-size SUVs, sports cars and sedans, and EV SUVs and trucks, primarily the Lyriq and Hummer models.

In Canada, GM's CAMI EV van plant will be down from 3-16 July, while its Oshawa, Ontario, and Silao, Mexico, full-size pickup truck plants will be down from 3-9 July.

Stellantis will take multiple outages, with its Detroit Mack and Jefferson, Sterling Heights and Toledo plants down the week of 26 June, and its Brampton, Ontario, and Saltillo, Mexico, plants down the week of 3 July. Its Warren truck plant and Windsor, Ontario, plant will be down the week of 21 August.

Toyota will shut down all of its 14 plants in Canada, Mexico and the US from 17-23 July with its US plants shut on the 4 July holiday.

Honda's more than a dozen plants across the three countries will take outages, with the plants in Canada and the US down from 3-7 July and its Mexico plant 14-18 August.

Hyundai's sedan and SUV plant in Alabama will be down from 1-10 July.

BMW's Spartanburg, South Carolina SUV plant will closed from 3-9 July.

Daimler's Tuscaloosa, Alabama SUV plant will closed for 1-4 July, taking a three day closure as the plant does not operate on Sundays.

Ford did not specify any planned summer outages, while Volvo did not respond to requests for comment.

The automotive industry is one of the largest consumers of steel products in North America. The average North American vehicle contains 1,980 lbs of steel, of which approximately 1,480 lbs are flat-rolled products, as well as 486 lbs of aluminum, according to data from the American Iron and Steel Institute's automotive program.

By Rye Druzin

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