GM boosts profit outlook as supply chain troubles ease

DETROIT — General Motors expects full year adjusted pre-tax profits will reach about $14 billion, higher than the previous forecast, CFO Paul Jacobson said during a presentation on Wednesday.

GM had previously forecast full-year adjusted pre-tax profits at $11.5 billion to $13.5 billion.

Jacobson said GM’s financial performance is benefiting from strong consumer demand, high prices for new vehicles and more stability in supplies of semiconductors.

Jacobson cautioned that supplies of semiconductors, and GM’s vehicle production, won’t get back to normal until late 2022. GM’s inventories of vehicles at dealerships won’t get back to normal soon.

“We’re not fully recovered yet, and I don’t think we expect to be into 2022,” but the chip situation is beginning to stabilize, he said.

Jacobson expects the crisis to improve in the second half of next year. “We’re optimistic that we can get to sort of a full run rate by the end of next year,” he said.

GM is also wrestling with rising costs for commodities used in its vehicles. “We see inflation everywhere,” Jacobson said.

So far, Jacobson said the company is not seeing much impact from the new Omicron coronavirus variant.

“We are continuing with the protocols that we have put in place, that have worked,” Jacobson said.