WASHINGTON: FedEx and General Motors were among several companies whose operations were stalled by bone-chilling weather that has caused power outages and gas shortages in parts of the United States.
A rare deep freeze sweeping southern US states reached the northern part of neighbouring Mexico over the three-day Presidents Day holiday weekend, leaving millions without power and sending oil prices to near 13-month highs. Front-month gas futures jumped to an over three-month high.
General Motors Co said it had cancelled the first shift at its Spring Hill, Tennessee; Bowling Green, Kentucky; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Arlington, Texas factories, which make some of its most profitable pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles including Chevrolet Silverado and Escalade.
“We will be making decisions at the respective plants later this morning regarding their production status for 2nd shift today,” a GM spokesman said.
Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co Ltd also joined GM in scrapping the first shift at some of their US plants.
GM’s smaller rival Ford Motor Co said it had stopped production of one if its best-selling F-150 pickup trucks at its Kansas City assembly plant until Feb 21 to conserve its supply of natural gas.
Package delivery company United Parcel Service said operations at its Dallas hub in Texas and Worldport air hub at Louisville International Airport were back to normal after being suspended overnight.
The company also said it did not have any coronavirus vaccine shipments in its network on the previous night.
UPS rival Package FedEx said severe weather was affecting its ability to deliver packages in certain cities.
The freeze also wreaked havoc on the US energy sector, bringing operations to a halt at the Houston Ship channel, while several of the biggest oil refineries remained offline in the nation’s largest crude-producing state.
Source: Reuters