By Ap/KWMU
Auburn Hills, MIch. – The Chrysler plant in south St. Louis County will go idle later this month for a week or so preparations can be made for new models.
Minivans are made at the St. Louis south plant.
The company will also use the work stoppage to reduce inventory; it had more than 68,000 cars in surplus at the end of last month.
The shutdowns will last a week or more and begin either late this month or early in January.
Chrysler's U.S. sales are up 3.2% this year in a mostly flat overall market. Chief Operating Officer Tom LaSorda says the biggest challenge of 2005 will be maintaining momentum. Among the plants shutting down for a week or more at the end of the year or in early 2005 will be a Dodge truck plant in Warren, Mich. which is retooling to launch a new mid-sized Mitsubishi truck.
The St. Louis South minivan plant will also close for retooling, as will a Detroit plant that builds the Dodge Viper sports car.
Chrysler's Dodge Durango SUV plant in Newark, Del., a PT Cruiser plant in Toluca, Mexico, will probably also close for a short time early next year to offset rising inventories, LaSorda said.
GM and Ford announced last week that they will make first-quarter production cuts to reduce inventory.