General Motors (GM) will extend the holiday shutdown for its Lansing Delta Township Assembly plant, according to a report in regional paper the Lansing State Journal. Production for 2015 is scheduled to end on 23 December, resuming on 11 January. The plant closure is reported to be for retooling and new equipment installation. The nearby Lansing Grand River plant goes down the same day, but production there resumes on 4 January.
Significance: GM announced a USD520-million investment in the plant in May 2015. A new generation of the Buick Enclave and Chevrolet Traverse are due for the plant, although according to the IHS Automotive production forecast, production of these is not expected until 2017, when the vehicles move to the new CHI platform. A year before new versions of the Traverse and Enclave are due for production, the GMC Acadia is also forecast to move to the CHI platform – with production of that vehicle also moving to GM's plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, United States, alongside the Cadillac XT5 and ahead of a new D-segment entry on the same platform. Lansing Delta River is not forecast to get an additional product to replace the Acadia.
