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Mercedes-Benz U.S. Factory Halts SUV Output After Supplier Fire

Mercedes-Benz U.S. Factory Halts SUV Output After Supplier Fire

(Bloomberg) -- Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, halted sport-utility vehicle production after an explosion and fire at a Michigan supplier factory led to a shortage of a crucial interior part.

The company has canceled shifts in certain areas and adjusted production hours for its employees, a Daimler spokesman said by phone Wednesday. He declined to quantify the anticipated lost vehicle output and related financial damage.

Mercedes-Benz’s only passenger-car factory in the U.S. produces the German brand’s popular GLE, GLS and GLE Coupe SUVs for global markets and the C-Class sedan for sales in North America. Magnesium Products of America Inc., also known as Meridian Magnesium Products, supplied a crossbar beam that holds the dashboard in the SUVs.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christoph Rauwald in Frankfurt at crauwald@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Jamie Butters

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