GM to Target More Factories for Closure, Stempel Says

General Motors Corp. Chairman Robert Stempel said Wednesday the auto maker will identify by the end of the year additional factories it intends to close under its massive restructuring program.

Speaking to reporters at a ceremony marking the production of the company’s 1 millionth Chevrolet Corvette, Stempel said GM will make more plant closing announcements this year.

“We’ll have more this year,” Stempel said. “The acceleration of our cost-cutting is continuing. That’s continuing full bore ahead, and the plant rationalization studies are absolutely active and under way.”

Stempel’s remarks seemed to reverse comments made last week by GM Chief Financial Officer William Hoglund, who told reporters at an industry conference that he did not know whether the auto maker would make any further plant closings announcements this year.

Analysts feared Hoglund’s comments suggested that GM was slowing down its restructuring program, under which the world’s biggest car maker plans to eliminate 74,000 jobs.

GM has said it plans to close 21 North American parts and assembly plants by 1995 under the program. So far it has identified 14 locations, including assembly plants in Ypsilanti, Mich., and North Tarrytown, N.Y.

Stempel declined to specify when all the plants will be identified.

“It’s going to be timed based on looking at the situation,” Stempel said. “We’re doing it internally first. These decisions are tough to make and are not easily reversed.”

Stempel declined to predict when GM’s North American operations would be profitable again but said he has seen improvement.

“I see no reason why that won’t continue,” he said. “We have a ways to go.”

Separately, Stempel said he expects a modest improvement in overall sales of U.S.-built cars and light trucks to 13.1 million units from last year’s 12.3 million, which was the lowest total in eight years.