State of the Union May 3, 2011

May 3, 2011 oline at www.uawlocal2250.com
•    From the Chaplaincy Committee: The 60th annual National Day of Prayer will be this Thursday, May 5. Services will be held at the flagpoles in the front of the plant at 5:30 am, lunchtime and 5:45 pm. All are welcome.
•    Ford is closing down its Windsor engine plant (V8 truck engines) this Friday and the week of June 6 because of tire shortages at assembly plants according to CAW Local 200 VP Marc Renaud. Last week both the Dearborn truck plant and the Avon Lake Econoline van plant were down but a Ford spokesperson would only say it was not earthquake related.
•    From Automotive News: Renesas Electronics Corp.'s sprawling Naka chip foundry in Japan is ground zero for the global shortage of automotive microcontrollers that has paralyzed assembly plants from Toyota City to Ohio. And despite working around the clock for a fix, full production is still months away. Naka will restart production of its critical 200-millimeter wafer on June 15. Those are the chips most often used in automotive components, and about 60 percent of Naka's output of these chips ends up in cars. But output will resume at only 3,000 wafers a month -- a fraction of the plant's pre-quake rate of 34,000 wafers a month. Test production began April 23. In the meantime, Renesas has shifted automotive microcontroller production from Naka to its Tsugaru plant in northern Japan and to an affiliate chip maker in Singapore. Testing at those sites began this month as well, and it may take at least a month for production to begin there.
•    Sales numbers for April are starting to come out. GM reported 232,538 total sales in April, a 27% increase versus April a year ago. Retail sales, those to individual customers, rose 25% versus last April with cars and crossovers up 49% and 28%, respectively. Total sales of GM passenger cars improved 50% during April, led by the sale of 25,160 Cruzes and 24,701 Chevrolet Malibus. The Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac brands each set April total and retail sales records for crossover sales, driven by a 49% increase in combined retail sales by the Equinox, Terrain and SRX. Total combined sales of Chevrolet Silverado and Avalanche, and GMC Sierra increased 2%. Van sales totaled 8669, up 43.7% over last April. This is the biggest sales month since November 2008. More to come tomorrow.