The changes come a day after the Detroit automaker warned a chip shortage would lead to a decline to vehicle volume in the current quarter.

Production at factories in Michigan, Chicago and in Cuautitlan, Mexico will be suspended. In Kansas City, production of F-150 pickup trucks will be idled while one shift will run for production of its Transit vans.

The Detroit automaker will also run a single shift or a reduced schedule at its factories in Dearborn, Kentucky and Louisville, while removing overtime at its Oakville factory in Ontario. The Oakville plant currently makes Edge and Lincoln Nautilus SUVs.

All changes will be in place for the week beginning Feb. 7.

Ford shares slumped on Friday, after the automaker posted smaller-than-expected quarterly income and forecast a slower recovery in 2022 vehicle production than rival General Motors.

However, the company said it expected vehicle volume to improve significantly in the second half.

— Reporting for Reuters by Hyunjoo Jin and Ben Klayman.

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An upturn in orders from farmers, who are benefiting from high crop prices after several lean years, has boosted earnings for equipment makers like U.S. giant Deere and Co.

Brisk farm machine demand has coincided with soaring costs of raw materials and supply chain disruption during the coronavirus pandemic, with a scarcity of electronic chips causing production snags, such as in the auto industry.

While steel prices appeared to have peaked, the supply squeeze in chips was not expected to ease until towards the end of 2022, German-based Claas said.

“It’s day and night work for our supply chain people,” Claas CEO Thomas Bock said at a press conference in Paris. “It’s going to be a tough next six months with suppliers.”

Procurement efforts by an expanded supply chain team, including some use of air freight, enabled Claas to avoid factory shutdowns except for odd one- or two-day stoppages on some lines, he said.

The farm machine industry was also less exposed than car makers to component shortages because it produced much smaller numbers of vehicles, he added.

Claas expects its earnings to be slightly lower in 2022, after pre-tax profit more than doubled to 357 million euros (C$517 million) in its 2021 financial year to Sept. 30.

December’s monthly survey by European farm machinery association CEMA showed that order levels were at record highs while nearly half of companies plan a temporary production halt in the month ahead.

High agricultural prices should sustain strong demand, with farmer investments in Europe also likely to be shaped by an upcoming overhaul of European Union farm subsidies, Bock said.

— Reporting for Reuters by Gus Trompiz in Paris.

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Reuss told an investor conference GM is working with seven chip suppliers on three new families of microcontrollers that will reduce the number of unique chips by 95 per cent on future vehicles.

The supplier partners include Qualcomm, STM, TSMC, Renesas, NXP, Infineon and ON Semi, he said.

Most of GM’s future investment in the new microcontroller families “will flow to the U.S. and Canada,” Reuss said.

Vehicle manufacturers around the world have been coping much of the year with shortages of semiconductor chips that control everything from heated seats to infotainment systems.

Those shortages in some cases have caused GM and other automakers to build, then park unfinished vehicles until missing chips finally arrive and can be installed. In other cases, vehicles are being delivered to customers without some of the usual features.

“We see our semiconductor requirements more than doubling over the new few years,” with the arrival of new electric vehicles and complex driver assistance systems such as UltraCruise, Reuss said.

The new microcontrollers will consolidate many of the functions now handled by individual chips, which not only will reduce cost and complexity, but “will drive quality and predictability,” he said.

The new microcontrollers will be built in high volume — as much as 10 million units a year, Reuss said.

A GM spokesperson told Reuters that the company is “trying to develop an ecosystem that is much more resilient, more scalable and always there to meet our needs.”

Earlier Thursday, Ford Motor Co. and chip manufacturer GlobalFoundries Inc. said they plan to work together to boost supplies for the automaker’s vehicles and the broader U.S. auto industry.

— Reporting for Reuters by Paul Lienert in Detroit.

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“As we look to the fourth quarter, a steady flow of vehicles held at plants will continue to be released to dealers,” GM said, adding that it was expecting a more “stable operating environment.”

The company said all of its full-size pickup, full-size sports utility vehicle and mid-size pickup truck plants in North America were operating as of this week.

Chip shortages and supply chain disruptions have forced automakers worldwide to cut production and in some cases, to produce vehicles without chips and park them at their facilities.

The problems have, however, allowed then to sell vehicles at higher prices due to record purchases from consumers, who are flush with cash amid low interest rates and rising wages.

“We expect to continue selling every vehicle we can produce with rapid turnover,” GM chief economist Elaine Buckberg said.

The Detroit automaker’s third-quarter sales fell to 446,997 vehicles, down by 218,195 vehicles from a year earlier.

In Canada alone, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac dealers delivered 48,657 vehicles in the third quarter, down 23 per cent from a year ago, the company said in a separate release Friday.

Sandor Piszar, GM Canada’s vice-president for sales, service and marketing, said those results “reflect how the shortage of semiconductors continues to impact vehicle production and dealer inventory.”

However, he said in Friday’s release, increased sales of utility vehicles such as the GMC Yukon, Chevy Tahoe and Cadillac Escalade during Q3 “illustrate how GM is prioritizing production of our most in-demand models.”

Pickup production, meanwhile, is due to begin later this year at GM Canada’s Oshawa assembly plant, “marking one of the fastest plant launches in GM’s history,” the company said.

— Reporting by Abhijith Ganapavaram in Bangalore. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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The largest U.S. automaker will halt production next week at its Fort Wayne plant in Indiana and its Silao plant in Mexico, both of which build pickup trucks. In total, GM is cutting production at eight North American assembly plants in September.

The industry-wide chip shortage is causing massive auto production cuts around the globe and auto industry officials say the problem is getting worse.

GM shares were largely unchanged in late trading Thursday.

Earlier this week, Ford Motor Co. said it will also cut truck production next week because of the chips shortage and said its August U.S. sales were down 33 per cent on the chip shortage. Toyota said last month it will slash global production for September by 40 per cent from its previous plan.

GM will halt production at its Wentzville, Missouri plant for two weeks starting Sept. 6 that builds midsize trucks and full-size vans. GM will also halt production at its CAMI assembly plant at Ingersoll, Ont., east of London, and its San Luis Potosi assembly in Mexico for two additional weeks. The company builds its Equinox SUV at both plants.

The automaker is also idling production for two additional weeks at its Lansing Delta Township plant that builds the Chevrolet Traverse and the Buick Enclave.

GM will cut two weeks of production in September at the Spring Hill Tennessee plant that builds the GMC Acadia, Cadillac XT5 and Cadillac XT6. Its Ramos, Mexico plant will take two additional weeks of downtime for Blazer production, while Equinox production will be down through the week of Sept. 27.

Production of the Equinox has been down since Aug. 16.

Democratic Senator Mark Warner said the “continuing impact of the chip shortage — epitomized most recently in the news that GM will be forced to idle plants across North America — speaks to the urgency of passing bipartisan legislation to fund new semiconductor production in the United States.”

GM said during production downtime it will repair and ship unfinished vehicles from many impacted plants, including Fort Wayne and Silao.

— David Shepardson reports on the U.S. auto and transportation sectors for Reuters from Washington, D.C.

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Calgary-based Cervus — which operates 64 dealerships in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, including 38 devoted mainly to Deere farm equipment — expects increased demand to run up against “supply chain constraints” in its first-quarter financial report on Thursday.

“Strong industry demand, compounded by supply chain constraints related to the pandemic and severe weather events, impacted the availability and timing of equipment from our manufacturers in the quarter,” Cervus CEO Angela Lekatsas said in the company’s release.

“We expect manufacturer supply chain issues, including semiconductor shortages, may continue into the second and third quarters of the year, and are working in partnership with our manufacturers to minimize the impact to our customers and our business.”

While major automakers’ difficulties in sourcing chips to complete new vehicles are well known, major farm equipment manufacturers including Deere, CNH and Agco have also taken a hit.

While semiconductor makers have said they plan to boost production, chips are currently harder to come by as demand for consumer electronics such as smartphones and gaming systems is amped up by the COVID-19 pandemic.

An Agco official last month told Reuters the company is informing farmer customers they may have to wait as long as six months for their new machinery, putting delivery well past harvest in markets such as the U.S.

However, Lekatsas said Thursday, “despite a decrease in equipment and service revenues from continued impacts of the global pandemic, we achieved a five per cent increase in gross profit quarter over quarter, from this change in the proportion of revenue from product support.”

Lekatsas noted the company’s “successful execution on initiatives to grow parts sales, which increased 11 per cent in the quarter, driving a seven per cent increase in overall product support revenue.”

Cervus booked net income of $2.987 million on $253.93 million in revenue for the quarter ending March 31, up from a $2.703 million net loss on $256.88 million in revenues for the year-earlier period.

The dealer chain’s revenue in 2021 Q1 included $174.63 million from equipment and $79.31 million from “product support.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The No. 2 U.S. automaker said it will run one of three shifts of production at its Dearborn truck plant the week of Feb. 8, while the truck portion of its Kansas City assembly plant will run two of three shifts of production during that week. Both are expected to return to three shifts the following week.

Ford declined to say what part or supplier were involved or how much volume would be lost.

Global automakers have been caught off guard by the shortage of crucial semiconductors, used for everything from computer management of engines to driver-assistance features such as emergency braking. Other automakers hit by the shortage include General Motors, Volkswagen, Toyota, Nissan and Subaru.

Up to now, automakers have largely focused on cutting production of less profitable vehicles as they manage through the shortage, but Ford cutting output of its high-profit trucks will raise concerns the impact is spreading.

Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker declined to address why the F-150 had been affected, but the Dearborn, Michigan-based company may discuss the matter further when it reports fourth-quarter earnings after the market closes on Thursday.

Felker said the automaker was “working closely with suppliers to address potential production constraints tied to the global semiconductor shortage and working to prioritize key vehicle lines for production.” Ford has previously cut other production because of the issue.

Also on Thursday, union sources told Reuters that automaker Stellantis will slow production at its Melfi plant in Italy next week due to a shortage of microchips and other parts and will put over 7,000 workers on furlough. Mazda said it expected a production cut of 7,000 vehicles this month as a result.

On Wednesday, GM said it would cut production at four of its plants due to the chip shortage.

On Tuesday, a group of 15 U.S. senators including majority leader Chuck Schumer and Republican John Cornyn urged the White House to work with Congress to address the global semiconductor shortage hitting auto manufacturing.

— Reporting for Reuters by David Shepardson in Washington, D.C. and Ben Klayman in Detroit.

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Companies that turn potatoes into french fries, wedges and hash browns are slowing down, because there isn’t enough space to store all the frozen product.

In Alberta and Manitoba, processors have been short potatoes because of poor harvest conditions last year — with more than 20,000 acres “being abandoned in farmers’ fields,” according to the United Potato Growers of Canada.

That had led to french fry processors in Western Canada importing potatoes from the U.S., but that’s now ceased, said the general manager of that organization.

“Customers will understand they have enough potatoes in their own storages now to get to the end of their marketing season,” Kevin MacIsaac said Tuesday.

But while french fry sales have stagnated, potato chip sales are up.

“Chip sales have been great,” he said. “Fresh potato sales were really good at the start. They’ve levelled off now as people have shopped and gotten what they need.

“We probably will expect another little bump in fresh sales at the end of Easter weekend.”

And people still have a way to get restaurant fries.

“We’re fortunate in Canada that our drive-thrus are still open,” said MacIsaac. “In Europe, some of our quick service restaurants like McDonald’s, they’ve closed the whole restaurant. That’s been real difficult for them to have no sales out of that building.”

Delivery services such as Skip the Dishes and DoorDash are also maintaining some french fry sales to restaurants, he said.

Meanwhile, his organization is trying to figure out the amount of potatoes in storage so it can forecast how much production will be needed this coming year.

“Some became unexpectedly available on the marketplace, so we’ve got to calculate those figures first from each province and figure out where that comes in.”

— Alexis Kienlen reports for Alberta Farmer from Edmonton.

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