DETROIT, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Detroit's Big Three automakers were due to resume production on Monday at most of the more than 50 plants crippled by the worst power outage in North Anerican history.
Company spokesmen said on Sunday that the slow return of full electricity could hamper normal output in some areas affected by the blackout. But no serious delays were expected.
"We're working our way through this thing," said Dan Flores of General Motors Corp. , the world's largest automaker.
Flores said the blackout affected a total of 17 GM plants. But all would be ramping up to full output by Monday morning with the exception of a few facilities in Canada were Flores said there were "issues bringing up some of the nuclear reactors."
At Ford Motor Co. , the No. 2 automaker worldwide, spokesman Ed Lewis said it too hoped to get most of the 23 plants it closed because of the blackout back to work by Monday morning.
But Lewis added that energy officials in some areas had asked for a slow return to full production to avoid putting a strain on local power grids.
The Chrysler arm of DaimlerChrysler AG said in a statement that the blackout affected 14 of its plants but that the facilities would all be operating by Monday.
Company officials said they were not yet prepared to estimate the full cost of the cascading outages, which cut electricity to about 50 million people.
But GM's Flores said the impact of the blackout was more subdued than some industry analysts might initially have expected.
"We certainly have an ability to make up many of these units," Flores said, referring to lost production of GM cars and trucks.