GM losses won't affect Cruze production
 

General Motors Co., the nation’s largest automaker, posted a $4.3 billion loss today for the six months since the company emerged from bankruptcy.

But the loss will not affect GM's plans for Lordstown and the production of the Chevrolet Cruze, said Jim Graham, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112.

In the earnings report, the company’s first since the bankruptcy, GM reported $57.5 billion in revenue and $1 billion positive cash flow for the time period of the report.

Despite losses, the company has a chance of achieving profitablity this year, GM’s chief financial officer Chris Liddell said in a statement.

“As the results for 2009 show there is significant work to be done,” Lidell said in the release. “However, I continue to believe we have a chance of achieving profitability in 2010.”

Graham said the earnings report was better than many had expected.

“GM is actually doing better than a lot of people thought it would,” Graham said. “GM’s car sales went up last month and they are going to keep increasing because the economy is going to keep getting better.”

GM has invested $350 million into its Lordstown plant to prepare for production of the Cruze. The company recently announced it will add a third shift of 1,200 workers at the Lordstown complex.