North American auto plant outages approach

Many auto manufacturing plants in North America will take downtime in the coming weeks for routine maintenance that will temporarily affect metal supply and demand.

At least six automakers on the continent have scheduled shutdowns around the 4 July holiday, when automaking typically slows down in the US. The auto assembly plant outages will briefly reduce usage of steel, aluminum and other metals used in automaking. The shutdowns will also lower generation of prime ferrous scrap, a key feedstock for steel companies using electric arc furnaces to make flat-rolled and special bar quality steels.

The outages are spread across US southern and Midwestern states, as well as in the Canadian province of Ontario and in Mexico.

Honda's plants in Ohio, Alabama, Indiana and Ontario will conduct maintenance for five days starting 29 June. Its plant in Celaya, Mexico, will take downtime for the week of 20 July.

Hyundai's SUV manufacturing facility in Alabama will be offline for maintenance from 22 June to 30 July. Its Georgia plant — designed to make 500,000 electric vehicles/yr — will be shut down 29 June to 10 July.

Nissan's auto plants in Mississippi and Tennessee will undergo maintenance from 29 June to 10 July. The Mississippi facility can make up to 410,000 cars and trucks/yr. The Tennessee plant has 640,000 vehicles/yr capacity.

Subaru's Indiana facility will also take its annual outage from 29 June to 10 July. The company makes three models at that site and about 336,000 vehicles/yr.

Volkswagen's Tennessee auto plant, whose capacity is about 175,000 vehicles/yr, will complete its annual maintenance the week of 29 June.

General Motors will conduct maintenance at some of its facilities this summer, but the company declined to share specifics on dates or locations.

Toyota declined to comment. Ford, Stellantis, Tesla, Volvo and Kia did not reply to requests for comment.

By James Marshall