GM, Ford parts shortages cut output for second day

General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co., the two largest U.S. automakers, said parts shortages caused by winter storms in Canada and the U.S. Midwest reduced production for a second day.

GM’s Lansing Grand River plant in Michigan is shut down, and six other plants have shortened or suspended shifts, Chris Lee, a company spokesman, said today in an interview. Shifts have been shortened at the CAMI assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, which makes the Chevrolet Equinox sport-utility vehicle, and a plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Lee said.

GM’s plant in Lordstown, Ohio, is running half shifts, and its Oshawa Assembly in Ontario is running half a shift on one line and is shut down on the other, Lee said. The Detroit-based company’s heavy-duty pickup plant in Flint, Michigan, is receiving some parts and will run two shifts through tomorrow, said Tom Wickham, a spokesman.

Automakers record revenue when vehicles are assembled. So the loss of production may affect the companies’ fourth-quarter sales if the output isn’t recouped during the rest of the month.

Production was suspended early at Ford’s Oakville assembly plant in Ontario, Todd Nissen, a spokesman, said in an e-mail. All other plants are running “as previously scheduled," he said. The automaker’s St. Thomas plant in Ontario, its factory in Avon Lake, Ohio, and its Chicago factory, which makes the Explorer SUV, missed production earlier, he said.

"We are starting to see improvements in the parts flow and hope to return to normal production on Thursday,’’ he said.

Highway Still Closed

Chrysler Group LLC factories in Toledo, Ohio, and Brampton, Ontario, were shut down this morning and should resume production this afternoon, Jodi Tinson, a spokeswoman for the Auburn Hills, Michigan-based automaker, said in an e-mail.

The second shift at Chrysler’s factory in Belvidere, Illinois, has been canceled because of ‘‘weather-related parts issues,’’ she said.

Lambton County in Ontario remains in a state of emergency after a winter storm on Dec. 13, the Ontario Provincial Police said today in a statement on its website. Eastbound lanes of Highway 402, which crosses the border to Port Huron, Michigan, were reopened today, police said.

Snow and stranded vehicles still are being removed from westbound Highway 402, according to the police.