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.
