General Motors GM recently paused the production of the 2022 Corvette Stingray for the week of Dec 13 following a fire at its plant in Bowling Green in Kentucky on Dec 11 due to tornado activity in the region.
Reportedly, several major tornadoes ripped through Kentucky and five other states in the South and Midwest areas of the United States over the weekend. The storms have claimed over 90 lives and destroyed entire towns.
The tornado activity caused widespread damage to General Motors’ Corvette plant, including severe havoc to the roof and an employee entrance. In fact, the damage was so acute that it resulted in a fire. Nonetheless, the small number of onsite employees were safe.
The GM Bowling Green Assembly plant employs 1,200 hourly workers and 180 salaried workers. Work is already in process to repair the damage to the plant’s roof and employee entrance so that production at the facility can be resumed soon. The first and second manufacturing shifts have been canceled this week so that the teams can work to get the facility restored and working again.
This suspension follows previous non-tornado-related Corvette production halt in March, October and November 2020, resulting from the ongoing semiconductor chip dearth that has hurt the global auto industry.
GM has still not confirmed when production will resume, though it expects things to be back on track by Dec 20. The automaker is expected to provide an update on this matter in the upcoming days.
Sales of the C8 Corvette Stingray have been robust this year, with GM struggling to meet the overwhelming demand for the vehicle. Reportedly, the automaker delivered 24,748 units of the vehicle through the first nine months of the year.
Recently, General Motors announced plans to commence production of its upcoming Chevy Silverado electric pickup in early 2023, with sales set to begin in late 2023. Production will begin at the recently inaugurated Factory Zero in Michigan, previously known as Detroit-Hamtramck.
General Motors also entered into a strategic collaboration with MP Materials to develop a fully integrated U.S. supply chain for rare earth magnets. Per the agreement, MP Materials – which operates the only rare earth materials mine in North America – will supply U.S.-sourced and manufactured rare earth materials, alloy and finished magnets for the electric motors used in the GMC HUMMER EV, Cadillac LYRIQ, Chevrolet Silverado EV and more than a dozen models using General Motors’ Ultium platform.
General Motors currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Key Auto Companies to Tap On
A few better-ranked stocks in the auto space include Goodyear Tire GT, LCI Industries LCII and Harley-Davidson HOG, all of which flaunt a Zacks Rank of 1.
Goodyear has an expected earnings growth rate of 196.86% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current-year earnings has been revised upward by 80 cents over the last 60 days.
Goodyear beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in the last four quarters. GT has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 228.45%, on average. Its shares have rallied 88.4% over the past year.
LCI Industries has an expected earnings growth rate of 67.95% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current-year earnings has been revised upward by 45 cents over the last 60 days.
LCI Industries beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in three of the last four quarters while missing once. LCII has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 10.09%, on average. Its shares have rallied 19.1% over the past year.
Harley-Davidson has an expected earnings growth rate of 34.92% for the current quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current-year earnings has been revised upward by 32 cents over the last 60 days.
Harley-Davidson beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in three of the last four quarters while missing once. HOG has a trailing four-quarter negative earnings surprise of 138.45%, on average. Its shares have risen 4.3% over the past year.
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