The Canadian truckers’ protest is causing problems for car manufacturers. The protesters are blocking a number of important border crossings to the US.
Stellantis was the first to sound the alarm, but after the parent company of Ram and Jeep, among others, General Motors, Ford, Honda and Toyota now state that the protests will lead to production stops and other problems. This is the case, for example, at Honda’s Alliston plant in Canada, where the Civic and CR-V are built for the North American market. Honda does not yet foresee similar measures for factories in the US itself, Automotive News says. This is already the case at Toyota, while American car brands are also forced to reduce production (even) further.
The biggest problem for automakers is the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Canadian Windsor, which carries about a quarter of trade between Canada and the US, according to Automotive News. Detroit is also traditionally home to American automakers, who still have many factories in the region.
There is no prospect of an improvement in this situation, because the already huge protest only seems to be expanding further. For example, it is feared that trucker protests of at least a similar level will arise in the US, with all the consequences that entails. Truck drivers are also revolting in Europe. For example, the ANP reports a protest drive to Paris and Belgium tries to prevent similar ‘convoys’ from forming within that country by means of border controls.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl