GM to Idle Some North American Plants Through June

General Motors

(GM) - Get Report

will scale back its U.S. vehicle production by undertaking a string of temporary closures at 14 plants through June, a published report said.

The automaker reported a January inventory totaling nearly 100 days of supply, exceeding inventories at

Ford

(F) - Get Report

and

DaimlerChrysler

(DCX)

. The industry standard is 60 days.

Company representatives couldn't be reached for comment.

GM, which boasts a workforce of about 170,000 employees and 29 plants in North America, indicated a total of nine U.S. plants would be closed next week.

Chrysler recently

cut 26,000 jobs and idled six of its North American plants in a bid to return to profitability. Chrysler has blamed "difficult business circumstances" as the cause of its troubles.

Shares of GM were recently off 66 cents, or 1.3%, to $51.80, on the

New York Stock Exchange

, while DaimlerChrysler shed $2.28, or 4.4%, to $49.38. Ford slipped 38 cents, or 1.4%, to $27.30 on the Big Board.