By Dhirendra Tripathi

Investing.com – Stocks of Ford Motor (NYSE:) and General Motors (NYSE:) traded 1% and 0.6% higher, respectively, in Friday’s premarket, shrugging off decisions by the companies to halt production at their Michigan factories.

Due to the shortage of semiconductors worldwide, Ford will stop production at Flat Rock Assembly Plant, which produces the Mustang.

GM has decided to stop producing at its Lansing Grand River Assembly. According to the company, it is not connected with chips. Other details were not provided by the company. GM stated that the plant produces Cadillac CT4, Cadillac CT5, Cadillac CT5 and Chevrolet Camaro.

Ford was forced to stop its Kansas City Assembly Plant production last month due to chip shortages. This prompted the company to warn that the quarter ahead will see a decline in vehicle volume.

A previous GM communication stated that production at the Fort Wayne assembly plant will be halted for two weeks starting Monday. This is due to a lack of semiconductor chips. According to Reuters the unit is responsible for making both GMC Sierra 1500 pickup trucks and Chevrolet Silverado 1500 pickup trucks.

For more than one year, automakers have struggled with shortages of semiconductor chips. This is because their capacities are competing to supply end-users such as manufacturers of smartphones, tablets, computers, and washing machines.

Pandemic-induced production delays have impacted the schedules of factories across Asia (mainly China, Vietnam and South East Asia). Deliveries have been delayed due to a lack of labor force and congestion at ports.