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Linamar says GM strike costing up to C$1 million per day

Canadian auto parts firm’s shares plunge by more than 10% after it warns of earnings hit from a slowdown in General Motors orders.

Linamar has its own trucking company, Linamar Transportation, which hauls auto parts and other freight. Photo: Linamar Transportation

Canadian auto parts maker Linamar (TSX:LNR) warned that the General Motors (NYSE: GM) strike is hurting its earnings by as much as C$1 million per day.

Linamar’s stock fell by as much as 13% during trading on October 3 after the company made the disclosure in a mid-quarter update. The loss in business, the equivalent of about US$750,000 per day, stems from a decline in GM orders, the company said. 

Linamar did not disclose the potential total impact on third-quarter earnings, slated for release on November 6. But the earnings period covers 15 days of the GM strike.

Linamar’s earnings warning adds to the growing impact that the strike by nearly 50,000 United Automobile Workers at GM’s U.S. plants is having across the borders in Canada and Mexico.


GM shut down its assembly plant in Oshawa and temporarily laid-off workers because of a shortage of parts. Layoffs have also hit suppliers and other adjacent companies, including a Canadian branch of a U.S. trucking company Martin Transportation

GM also shut down two factories in Mexico because of the strike.

Linamar operates 35 facilities in North America, with 24 in Canada, six in the United States and five in Mexico. It also has its own private trucking fleet, Linamar Transportation, with more than 100 trucks.

Linamar Transportation handles auto-parts freight for its parent company, including cross-border runs between Ontario and Michigan. The Guelph-based carrier offers other truckload services. 


Representatives from Linamar Transportation could not immediately be reached for comment.

Nate Tabak

Nate Tabak is a Toronto-based journalist and producer who covers cybersecurity and cross-border trucking and logistics for FreightWaves. He spent seven years reporting stories in the Balkans and Eastern Europe as a reporter, producer and editor based in Kosovo. He previously worked at newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the San Jose Mercury News. He graduated from UC Berkeley, where he studied the history of American policing. Contact Nate at ntabak@freightwaves.com.