GM Puts Brakes On Production

DETROIT--General Motors Corp., following the lead of Ford and DaimlerChrysler, plans to cut American production 14 percent through the remainder of this year and into the first quarter of 2001.

GM said it expects to produce a reduced 1.37 million vehicles in the fourth quarter to trim inventories at factories and dealerships. The Wall Street Journal said the world’s largest automaker had a 104-day supply of vehicles on Nov. 30, compared to an 80-day inventory of cars and trucks at the end of October.

United Press International reports that auto industry analysts are forecasting that demand for new cars and trucks will slow next year--an assessment that prompted Ford to cut its first-quarter production 10 percent and Chrysler to cut fourth-quarter production 21 percent.

Sales for this year are still projected to be the second-best in the history of the auntomobile industry.

With the announced cutbacks, GM is expecting to produce 1.3 million vehicles--635,000 cars and 666,000 trucks--at North American plants in next year’s first quarter.

GM had a little more than 25 percent of the U.S. vehicle market in November, its lowest market share in more than two years.