GM to halt medium-duty truck production

Production of the Chevrolet Kodiak and the GMC Topkick medium-duty trucks will cease by July 31, General Motors said Monday.

GM has spent four years searching for potential buyers for the truck business, but has decided to wind down its medium-duty truck operations.

In 2007, Navistar International Corp. struck a tentative deal to buy GM's medium-duty truck business. The deal expired last summer without being concluded.

Navistar CEO Dan Ustian stressed during talks of the potential purchase that any agreement that required Navistar to keep open GM's medium-duty truck plant in Flint, Mich., probably would never get signed.

The Flint Journal reported in January that GM and Isuzu Motors were discussing the sale of the medium-duty commercial-truck business; that deal would keep production in Flint through the end of 2014, sources said.

By Angie Favot