General Motors has just announced that it is to stop making GM-branded cars in Indonesia and would also cease production of its Chevrolet Sonic in Thailand by the middle of 2015. While GM will still sell cars like the Cruze sedan in parts of Southeast Asia, an emerging markets battleground for global automakers, it is shifting focus to push the ‘American heritage’ of its SUVs and pickups such as the Trailblazer and Colorado.
The restructuring which is under Executive Vice President Stefan Jacoby, who oversees markets beyond the Americas, Europe and China marks a retrenchment in Asia. While business grows in China, the world’s biggest autos market, GM has struggled in other parts of its international operations unit, which doesn’t include China.
GM has signaled overall restructuring charges of about USD700 million this year, and said last month it expected an improved consolidated operating performance from Jacoby’s International Operations unit.
GM’s Thai plant in Rayong, an industrial city southeast of Bangkok, will be scaled down from current annual capacity of 180,000 vehicles. The company did not elaborate, but said it would initiate a “voluntary separation program” for staff. In total, GM employs around 3,200 people in Thailand.
