GM to shutter Indonesia plant, restructure Thailand operations

General Motors is reportedly in the early stages of restructuring its Southeast Asia operations.
The company plans to shutter a factory in Indonesia, after less than two years of production. The Bekasi plant near Jakarta had been staffed by 500 workers, tasked with building the Chevrolet Spin.

A much larger factory is located in Thailand, where GM will significantly scale back production. The pullout is part of a broader effort to refocus on the Chevy Colorado, Trailblazer and Captiva SUVs in the region, rather than the Sonic and Spin.

“We must accelerate the transformation of our operations in Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand given the sluggish domestic market demand, by implementing changes to increase customer satisfaction and our competitiveness, speed up all processes, and put us in a better position to achieve future growth,” said GM Southeast Asia president Tim Zimmerman.

The company last year announced plans to cease Australia production operations, with a complete pullout by 2017. The global restructuring plans are expected to cost at least $700 million this year.