GM said set to close three North American plants

Announcement expected soon Reports focus on factories in U.S.

General Motors Corp. could close at least three North American assembly plants and additional support facilities such as metal- stamping plants when it announces a plan to cut excess capacity in its home market, people who have studied the company’s operations say. GM chair man and chief executive Rick Wagoner has promised to unveil a plan before the end of the year to bring GM’s capacity in line with North American sales by 2008. People familiar with GM’s plans say an announcement could come soon. Detroit- based GM and United Auto Workers officials have been negotiating the specifics of the plans and how they will affect thousands of workers. GM’s plant- shutdown announcement, when it comes, will be another blow to the UAW, which now faces the loss of tens of thousands of jobs at GM, Ford Motor Co. and the two U. S. auto giants’ respective former parts units, Delphi Corp. and Visteon Corp.

While the details of GM’s plans remain unclear, GM officials have said that their long- term strategy is to shift more production to lower- cost locations outside North America and to make plants that remain in the U. S. more efficient and flexible, able to build more than one model.

Earlier this year, GM said it might soon discontinue at least one shift at plants in Spring Hill, Tenn., which make the Saturn Ion and the Saturn Vue, and in Oklahoma City, which produces the Chevrolet Trailblazer, Buick Rainier and the GMC Envoy. The company is considering moving the Saturn Ion production from Spring Hill to a GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio, but union leaders in Spring Hill believe the work will stay in Spring Hill. Once Wagoner makes his capacity plan public, he will have to convince Wall Street — and investor Kirk Kerkorian, who owns 9.9 per cent of GM’s shares — that the restructuring goes far enough to return GM’s core home-market auto operations to sustainable profitability. GM has posted losses exceeding $3 billion ( U. S.) so far this year, most of them accrued in North America.