One of the reasons for the plants closing is the steel and aluminium tariffs - in a global manufacturing environment, it’s rare that everything is made in one country; parts are shipped between, and assembled, in different counties - imposing tariffs disrupts this flow, with the impact we have just seen (GM have said it will reduce their annual profit by $1 billion).
Also, the plants that are shutting produce smaller cars, and the North American market has moved to crossovers, SUVs, and Hybrids, and it is more cost-effective to increase throughput in car plants that already produce these (and that are mainly automated, so few extra jobs) than to re-tool the factories that produce small cars.
There’s a good article in Forbes (a very Conservative publication) about it.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidki.../#21a137a86057
Quote:
That GM is looking to cut thousands of jobs at a time when the economy is performing well indicates a few realities of the global economy and the future of mobility. Ford, too, is expected to announce huge job cuts this week.
–Many forecasters project that the U.S., the best market for GM and Ford, could see annual sales fall to between 15 million and 15.5 million a year for the next five years or so because of an overheated used car supply, as well as a decline in new-vehicle ownership among consumers 20-32.
–GM, like most other car companies, is readying their operations and employee headcount for a rise in mobility usage, rather than vehicle ownership–ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft; increasing moves to city centers where consumers don’t want to own vehicles; burgeoning businesses around autonomous driving fleets that will have costs competitive with car ownership. "We are right-sizing capacity for the realities of the marketplace," Chief Executive Mary Barra said, adding that GM will double resources dedicated to electric and self-driving vehicles over the next two years.
–A shift in consumer tastes away from sedans, which many plants are geared to produce, to plants that build crossovers SUVs. Ford and FCA, too, have announced they are phasing out sedans.
–Higher costs, due in part to the Trump administration steel tariffs, have already cost GM $1 billion, and those costs will persist and rise as long as they are in place.
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