Chrysler To Shut Factories For A Month

Chrysler said Wednesday that it would close all 30 of its factories for at least one month, starting at the end of this week, in response to plunging vehicle sales in the United States.

The company said the plants, which employ 46,000 union workers, would resume production no sooner than Jan. 19. Some will remain closed for several more weeks. Normally, the Detroit automakers close their plants for about two weeks at the end of the year.

Ford Motor said Wednesday evening that it would extend the holiday shutdown at most of its plants to a third week.

Meanwhile, worries that Chrysler could be forced to file for bankruptcy have spooked many auto dealers into borrowing so much money from the automaker’s lending arm that the company said it might need to suspend the loans.

Dealers have been requesting nearly $60 million a day from a fund used to finance vehicle inventories, and a total of $1.5 billion since July, Chrysler Financial’s chief executive, Thomas F. Gilman, told dealers in a letter dated Dec. 12. Mr. Gilman called the requests “troubling” and urged dealers not to borrow more than “what’s absolutely necessary for the operation of your business.”

The announcements come with vehicle sales in the United States at the lowest level in 26 years. Chrysler’s sales were down 47 percent in November, compared with a 37 percent decline for the industry over all.

“Chrysler Financial finances 75 percent of all vehicles shipped to U.S. dealers, and we continue to support our dealer body with uninterrupted wholesale financing,” a Chrysler Financial spokeswoman, Amber Gowen, said.

Chrysler said its dealers, during a recent meeting at the company’s headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich., told executives that they had lost 20 percent to 25 percent of their volume because consumers were unable to obtain loans.