More Auto Plant Closures

Published on June 30, 2008 By Artysim In Current Events

Chrysler's closing another auto plant. This time, the St. Louis South Plant which makes minivans is shutting down for good. In the fall, the St. Louis North Plant which makes pickup trucks is cutting back from 2 shifts to 1. As I've droned on about before, this is not a unique situation. All of the big autos are going through a major downturn and it's not going to get any better with the cost of gas. The recent announcement from Chrysler will cut about 2400 jobs.

Plants in Ohio and Delaware that make various SUV's and trucks are going to close "temporarily" for periods of up to 6 to 8 weeks with promises of re-opening at the end of the summer. We'll see how long that lasts.

Many folks are speculating that this near constant closure of plants and assembly facilities is indicative of a bigger shift; the death of the United States Automobile Industry. These things rarely happen in one fell swoop.. it's more of a slow bleed and gradual transition which we are witnessing.

Cerberus Capital Management bought Chrysler, but they don't care about autos or domestic industrial production. They care about making a healthy profit, which is why they're going to probably keep making "gradual" cuts to Chrysler's production capacity and continue with the "temporary" idling of plants for periods that will continue to get longer until they shut them down altogether. This will leave Cerberus in a good position to slice and dice what's left of Chrysler and sell them off in chunks to the highest bidder.

"Hogwash!" They cry, while in the meantime they are patiently laying the groundwork for another classic spin-off operation. By the time they're ready to do the deed gas will be over 5 $ a gallon in the U.S (could easily happen by next summer the way the market is going right now) and no one will really much care. This could be around the same time that Ford and GM become subsidiaries of Honda or Toyota. Maybe I'm being chicken little and claiming that the sky is falling. Or, it could just be that our lifestyle of cheap, abundant energy and inneficient, obsolete machines that use that energy is coming to an end. Either way, the outcome will certainly be very interesting!

Here in town the Chrysler dealership has a row of shiny trucks parked up front with the hoods propped open with giant signs shouting "SALE!!" for the last week now. I haven't seen any move yet.

Comments

RoyLevosh

on Jun 30, 2008

Or, it could just be that our lifestyle of cheap, abundant energy and inneficient, obsolete machines that use that energy is coming to an end.

I think you nailed it right there.

Dr Guy

on Jul 01, 2008

Or, it could just be that our lifestyle of cheap, abundant energy and inneficient, obsolete machines that use that energy is coming to an end.

Very true. As for the impending demise of the Auto Industry, it was also announced 30 years ago. While the big 3 are arrogant in their manufacturing and marketing, they are at least big enough to weather that arrogance until saner heads prevail.

They will survive. Maybe not as top cocks in the barn yard, but still as major going concerns.

CharlesCS

on Jul 02, 2008

The problem is that many people want progress, new technology, improvement in our lifestyles. What people fail to understand is that in order to achieve these goals, sacrifices must be made. Once upon a time we have TV repair shops anywhere and everywhere, now a days it's cheaper to simply replace the electronic device rather than fix it, good bye repair man. Sooner or later gas cars would become a thing of the past, replaced by things such as electric cars, solar cars or other alternative energy vehicles. Chances are these facilities that built gas cars would have to make drastic changes in order to keep up with the demand in change, chances are people would have lost their jobs due to needing to shut down these locations to make these changes, chances are these facilities may open again someday and some of these people, if not others, will be hired to built these new vehicles. In the end both progress and abuse of today's energy sources would eventually make new things rise while others fall. It's the natural course of life. Wild fires destroy thousands of acres of land, but from these ashes new life will grow and replace that which was lost.

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