General Motors (NYSE:GM) announced this afternoon the closure of facilities by the end of the first quarter in 2009, amounting to 30% of total U.S. production.

The move will eliminate 250,000 vehicles from production; normal production volume for the quarter is normally 750,000 vehicles. Sites expected to take the brunt of the cuts are those in Ft. Wayne, Ind., Pontiac and Flint, Mich., as well as sites in Kansas, Canada and Mexico, although 21 plants in total are expected to shutdown for the entire month of January.
 
Honda (NYSE:HMC) also announced another round of production cuts as well, planning on elimination of 119,000 vehicles from 1Q2009 production. The cuts lower overall production volume over the previous year by 12%.

(Disclosure: members of the author’s family are employed by vendors to the Big Three.)