While Hyundai’s Alabama sedan and SUV facility will be closed from June 25 to July 10, Nissan will close all four US operations from June 27 to July 10. From 3–15 July, Daimler will shut down its Mercedes van production in Charleston, South Carolina, although it won’t close its SUV plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
In This Article...
Nissan’s Tennessee plant will temporarily stop production.
To balance inventory levels, the Japanese automaker will to halt production at its Smyrna assembly facility for two days this month, according to company executives.
AP: NASHVILLE, Tennessee In order to balance inventory levels, Nissan Motor Corp. intends to halt operations at its Smyrna assembly factory for two days this month.
On March 28 and 31, employees who have vacation or personal days remaining may use them. If not, two days of pay will be deducted from their paychecks.
Nashville-based The Smyrna plant is where Nissan North America Inc. produces the Maxima sedan, the Frontier pickup, the Xterra sport utility vehicle, and the Altima coupe and sedan.
Nissan’s engine factory in Decherd and its other car assembly facility in Canton, Miss., according to Nissan spokesperson Julie Lawless, won’t be impacted by the closure.
Compared to the same month last year, Nissan’s overall U.S. sales were down 2.9 percent in February for trucks and 2.2 percent for automobiles.
The company’s first order of the year is a two-day production halt at Smyrna.
General Motors Corp., which has an assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, has announced that it will reduce production in the second quarter. However, 29 of GM’s North American truck and sport utility vehicle plants have been forced to shut down entirely or in part due to a strike that has been going on at a GM supplier since Feb. 26 at American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. These factories produce automobiles using axles from American Axle.
According to trade publication Automotive News, GM has lost over 41,000 units of truck and SUV manufacturing since the American Axle strike started.
The business has reluctant to go into specifics about production or to estimate how much it would be reduced.
“We plan to keep going.” No one is being let go,” stated spokesperson Michael Goss. We’ll assign some workers to special improvement teams and conduct extra training, among other things, but our objective is to keep everyone employed.
Comparing the same period this year to last, full-size pickup sales in the United States were down about 10% through the month of February, according to the industry.
Due to chip shortages, automakers risk losing more than 340,000 vehicles from North American production over the summer.
Nissan will extend the summer shutdown of its American factories in order to make more microchips available for next models including the 2022 Pathfinder.
The global shortage of semiconductor chips could make this summer a hot one for the auto industry.
Production halts may coincide with customary summertime factory closures and model revisions as automakers deal with the supply chain crisis.
According to AutoForecast Solutions, during the next two months, the North American industry could lose more than 340,000 planned vehicles.
Fiorani stated that plant shutdown in July and thereafter “essentially negate” manufacturers’ capacity to make up any of the lost volumes this year.
But Nissan Motor Co. is extending its initially planned two-week U.S. summer shutdown, pausing partial production at its Canton, Miss., and Smyrna, Tenn., assembly facilities next month in an effort to preserve its supply of microchips for important launches.
According to sources at two suppliers with knowledge of the situation, Nissan will halt production of three models at its plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, including the Murano crossover, Leaf electric hatchback, and Maxima large sedan, for an additional four weeks after the plant’s summer shutdown, which starts in late June.
Although Nissan last week announced that production of the midsize Altima vehicle in Canton, Mississippi, will be delayed for two weeks after the summer shutdown, the company declined to comment on the production schedules at its Smyrna, Tennessee, facility.
Nissan’s efforts to rekindle consumer interest and profitability in the United States are being hampered by the chip scarcity.
Three significant updated vehicles are about to be released at U.S. plants: the Nissan Frontier midsize pickup, the Infiniti QX60 crossover, and the Nissan Pathfinder crossover.
Due of the limited quantity of microchips, Nissan is placing a priority on new launches and high-volume models like the Sentra, Rogue, and Kicks.
In reference to allocation choices, Colleran observed, “It’s kind of like a Rubik’s Cube.” “It’s required us to work every day to understand what the supply chain looks like and what our suppliers can deliver us,” the company said.
Nissan is not the only company struggling with the intricate chip supply problem that was brought on by pandemic-related factory lockdowns last year and made worse by an unanticipated rise in consumer demand this year.
According to LMC Automotive, less than 200,000 vehicles from North American manufacturing are anticipated to be made up by year’s end, with an estimated 1 million vehicles lost due to the chip shortage in the first half of the year.
According to Jeff Schuster, president of worldwide forecasting at LMC, “this is going to be a difficult ride for the industry to weather through 2021 with inventories not predicted to routinely reach ‘normal’ levels until 2023.”
The North American production of the Asian and European transplants was less affected by the chip shortage.
The weaker recovery in Europe has resulted in fewer shipments from European brands to North America, according to Schuster. As a result, the U.S. has been able to maintain the necessary additional capacity to meet the high demand.
Tennessee Due to a chip shortage, Nissan will shut down for two weeks.
Nissan announced Tuesday that its massive Smyrna, Tennessee, factory, which employs 6,700 people, will be closed for two weeks starting on Monday due to a shortage of computer chips brought on by a coronavirus outbreak in Malaysia.
Since the semiconductor shortage, which has hampered vehicle manufacturing globally, began to take hold in the latter part of last year, the stoppage is among the longest at any American auto plant of this scale.
In response to a COVID-19 outbreak at a Malaysian chip manufacturer, Nissan said on Tuesday that it was out of chips. On August 30, it anticipates resuming manufacturing.
Six Nissan vehicles are produced in the 6.700-employee Tennessee facility, including the Rogue small SUV, which is the brand’s best-selling model in the country.
According to analysts, the two-week closure of such a sizable Nissan production is an indication that the semiconductor scarcity may not be ending as soon as many auto executives had planned for late this year.
The few American facilities that have been closed for two consecutive weeks are typically those that produce sedans or other lower-volume, less lucrative vehicles. Automakers have made an effort to save chips for the factories that produce their best-selling vehicles, primarily SUVs and pickup trucks. Although there have also been intermittent closures of pickup vehicle plants.
Sam Abuelsamid, principal analyst at Guidehouse Research, stated that Smyrna is a vital manufacturing for Nissan and that its closure indicates that there may not be a quick resolution to the semiconductor shortage.
Supply issues could endure even longer than that, according to Abuelsamid, as COVID-19 infections continue to spread throughout the semiconductor supply chain in Asia and other places.
There is a nationwide shortage of new vehicles as a result of the shortfall, manufacturing closures, and high consumer demand in the U.S. As a result, prices have increased and the used car market has been affected by the lack.
Nissan will it be closed for two weeks?
According to analysts, the massive Nissan factory’s two-week stoppage is an indication that the semiconductor scarcity may not be ending as soon as many auto executives had thought for late this year.
Why is Nissan closing its doors?
Due to a coronavirus outbreak in Malaysia and an interruption in the supply of semiconductors, one of the biggest auto manufacturers in North America was forced to temporarily close.
Nissan facility to close?
In anticipation of future product launches, Nissan said it will “halt activities at the Decherd powertrain factory.” 400 of its staff will be transferred. Although Infiniti Powertrain was designed to produce up to 250,000 engines annually, at its peak output in 2020, it was only able to operate at 35 percent of capacity.
Nissan is it reducing output?
The Nikkei reported without citing its source that the Japanese automaker has informed suppliers that it will assemble 583,000 automobiles over the course of the two months.
Nissan is reducing its anticipated global output for October and November by 30% as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic-related scarcity of semiconductors, according to the Nikkei business newspaper.
Nissan’s spokesman said, “We understand that the semiconductor supply deficit is still in a tough condition,” but she would not comment on the alleged drop. Next month, when the business releases its most recent profit reports, it will provide an update.
Despite a pick-up in demand in significant auto markets like China and the United States, Nissan has been obliged to reduce production along with other automakers. The epidemic has simultaneously reduced component producers’ output and spurred consumer demand for electronics, which has increased chip competition.
The largest automaker in the world, Toyota Motor Corp, indicated this month that it would lower production by 15% in November after reducing output in September and October as a result of a slowdown at component plants in Malaysia and Vietnam.
Are there not enough Nissan Altimas available?
Nissan Altima sales decreased 10% over the first half of the year, selling less than 62,000 vehicles, according to Automotive News. This is due to Nissan Motor Co. being forced to temporarily halt Altima manufacturing at the Canton, Mississippi factory due to the ongoing microprocessor shortage.
Since the factory’s expected two-week summer shutdown on June 4, 2021, the production line has remained at a stop. The company intends to halt production on the Nissan Titan and Frontier lines for two days each in the first half of August 2021.
All current-market automobile sales are tracked by GoodCarBadCar. The Nissan Altima has consistent sales from its launch in 2005, according to their data. The 2019 Altima had 209,183 annual sales prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Sales plummeted significantly to just 137,988 units in the previous year. With more than half of the year already in the books, that figure for 2021 is a meager 61,928.
Nissan Altima sales for the month of February 2020 were 19,909 units. As dealerships around the country shut down in April, that number fell to only 3,906 units. In contrast to the 23,000 unit monthly average of earlier years, the Altima is only selling about 10,000 units per month this year.
How many Nissan facilities exist?
TWENTY-FIVE PLANT We efficiently manufacture cars at plants rooted in local communities, resulting in high-quality goods that satisfy our customers.
Are 2022 Nissan Pathfinders in short supply?
The technology sector has been hindered by a global scarcity of semiconductor chips, which is now having a significant effect on the production of new cars. Over 100,000 fewer vehicles have already been produced by Volkswagen. The scarcity has severely impacted the Camaro sports vehicle, the Silverado and Sierra truck brands, and General Motors as well.
According to Chief Executive Makoto Uchida of Nissan, the manufacturer is the most recent to see the effects of the supply chain deficit. The output this year will be affected by around 500,000 units, as of this writing. Nissan faces a number of challenges, including a shortage of semiconductor chips and rapidly rising raw material costs.
Nissan only sold 285,553 automobiles in the US for the first quarter of 2021, demonstrating the magnitude of the impact that 500,000 units will have. In 2020, a challenging year, Nissan moved 819,715 automobiles (compared to 1,227,973 the previous year). Nissan’s sales were increasing in 2021, but it will be challenging to maintain that pace given the current circumstances. The manufacturing corresponding to over (or probably more than) half of Nissan’s annual US sales will be effectively eliminated by this chip scarcity.
Nissan will make an effort to restart manufacturing, according to Uchida, who spoke with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” during the interview. The Japanese automaker’s attempt to introduce a number of new models in the US coincides with the global scarcity, which could not have occurred at a worse time for it. The Smyrna Vehicle Assembly Plant in Tennessee has just started producing the 2022 Nissan Pathfinder, and later this year the brand-new Frontier pickup truck will start production.
We anticipate that the scarcity will significantly impact the Q2 2021 sales results for the majority of automakers. Nissan and other businesses will probably experience a decline in sales compared to the early months of this year, when sales were brisk as a result of the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions. The car sector will need to make the necessary adjustments as some analysts predict that this shortfall might endure until 2022 or perhaps 2023. Used automobile values are at an all-time high as a result of the shortfall affecting the production of new vehicles.