Mercedes, Volvo halt U.S. plants in wake of deadly storm

Mercedes-Benz and Volvo Cars are suspending operations at U.S. plants in South Carolina ahead of the arrival of a storm that has already caused massive destruction as well as least 15 confirmed deaths in Florida.

Volvo's plant, which employs 1,500 people, stopped building the S60 on Thursday. The factory in Ridgeville, outside of Charleston, will be closed on Friday, a spokesman told Automotive News Europe. Volvo said it aims to resume output on Monday.

The closure is not expected to have any impact on the scheduled production starts for the Volvo EX90 and Polestar 3 premium large electric SUVs, spokespersons for the two brands confirmed.

Mercedes said its plant in Ladson, South Carolina, was halting production on Friday as a safety precaution. The plant employs about 1,600 people and builds the Mercedes Sprinter and Metris vans.

A spokesman for BMW, which has a plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, said the automaker's operations were far enough upstate that they were unaffected.

Supply disruptions expected

Jacksonville, the largest container port in Florida and a main trade gateway for auto shipments, shut down Wednesday and will remain closed until the Coast Guard authorizes operations to resume, spokesperson Chelsea Kavanagh said in an emailed statement.

The ocean seaports in Charleston and Georgetown, South Carolina, that support manufacturers are closing all marine terminals on Friday.

Significant supply disruptions should be expected, said Jon Davis, chief meteorologist at Everstream Analytics. 

"Major cargo carriers are experiencing widespread delays across their networks," Davis said, adding that, "Ian is tracking northward toward key automotive, agriculture, textile and industrial hubs in northern Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, spelling further supply-chain headaches for major producers."

Hurricane Ian is one of the strongest storms ever to hit the U.S. mainland. It flooded Gulf Coast communities and knocked out power to millions before plowing across the peninsula to the Atlantic Ocean, where it regained strength ahead of another anticipated landfall in South Carolina on Friday afternoon.

Ian blasted ashore in Florida at the barrier island of Cayo Costa on Wednesday afternoon as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (241 kph).

The storm was forecast to make landfall again about 2 p.m. ET on Friday north of Charleston. A hurricane warning was in effect for hundreds of miles of coastline from the South Carolina-Georgia border north to Cape Fear, North Carolina.

More than 2.6 million Florida homes and businesses are without power, and officials have warned some of the grid must be completely rebuilt. It remains unclear how many people were killed by the storm.

In Florida, the damage estimates from Ian are in the tens of billions, with AccuWeather forecasting $100 billion.

Reuters and Bloomberg contributed to this report