Cruzes shipping out of Lordstown again

Staff report

LORDSTOWN

Chevrolet Cruzes are shipping out of the General Motors Lordstown Assembly plant again.

Deliveries of the new 2017 Cruze were suspended temporarily last week for two days after a supply-chain issue affected the plant.

Normal three-shift production continued at the plant despite the supply-chain issue, but a scheduled Saturday production day was canceled.

The Cruzes started to ship out again over the weekend, a spokesperson said.

“Production is still going on, and we are monitoring it on a day-to-day basis,” added Glenn Johnson, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112.

Neither union nor company officials have specified what the supply-chain issue is.

The Lordstown plant employs 4,500 to build the next-generation Chevrolet Cruze. The new Cruze deliveries began March 21.

Production of the Cruze is ramping up, and so is the demand, GM has said.

Next month, Cruzes produced at the Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, plant will be shipped in to supplement the U.S. market supply.

In July, GM reported a 35.7 percent decline in Cruze sales. The drop likely was because of GM’s strategy to reduce fleet sales and focus on retail, or sales to individual customers.

In July 2015, 40 percent of the Cruze’s sales were fleet sales, according to data from TrueCar. So far in 2016, the Cruze’s fleet sales have been below 20 percent.