GM halts production at major plants due to Hurricane Helene

GM confirmed in a statement to wealth that two plants, one in Michigan and one in Texas, canceled their Thursday and Friday shifts. The company did not have a timetable for when the factories would be back up and running, but stressed it was working quickly to resume operations.

“Production at Flint Assembly and Arlington Assembly is canceled for all shifts on Thursday, October 3 and Friday, October 4 due to the impact on suppliers as a result of Hurricane Helene,” GM said in an emailed statement. “We are working with these suppliers to resume operations as quickly and safely as possible for their employees and communities as we try to minimize the impact on our factories.”

The Michigan plant, the oldest GM assembly plant still in operation in North America, is known for producing heavy-duty trucks. Texas-based Arlington Assembly makes full-size SUVs, including the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon. It’s unclear what impact, if any, the shutdowns will have on overall production, and GM declined to detail which suppliers were tied to the break.

GM shares rose 1.56% on Friday as markets rallied on a strong September jobs report.

The outage at GM marks the latest in a series of setbacks caused by Helene, which has been called the deadliest hurricane in 20 years. An Accuweather estimate put the total damage and economic losses in the US from the storm at between $95 billion and $110 billion. Those are daunting numbers amid reports that the Federal Emergency Management Agency doesn’t have enough funds to get through hurricane season.

And more storms are brewing in the Atlantic.

The National Hurricane Center is tracking two powerful storms. Kirk was upgraded to a Category 4 hurricane on Thursday, but its path has changed and it is not expected to make landfall. Leslie is still only considered a tropical storm, but experts predict it will reach hurricane status by Saturday. Currently, Leslie is not expected to make landfall either, but the rapid succession of strong storms is troubling as communities, businesses and governments are just beginning to recover from Helene.

The auto industry relies heavily on just-in-time manufacturing, which minimizes inventory to reduce costs, but leaves little room for flexibility when supply chains are disrupted. In recent years, hurricanes such as Harvey and Ida have caused significant disruptions to manufacturing and shipping, delaying production schedules and disrupting access to key resources. For automakers like GM, these disruptions threaten their ability to meet demand, especially for high-margin vehicles like SUVs and trucks.

Climate experts are urging manufacturers to reassess the risks posed by extreme weather and invest in more resilient infrastructure, such as diversifying supplier locations, strengthening factory protections or even moving production out of high-risk areas. However, the challenge remains in balancing the costs of proactive investments in climate resilience against the immediate financial pressures of scale production, especially as the industry is still recovering from the slowdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic.