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UPDATE 1-U.S. auto industry struggles with power outages

(Updates throughout with new details, comments)

By Justin Hyde

BRIGHTON, Mich., Aug 15 (Reuters) - The largest blackout in North American history forced Detroit's Big Three automakers on Friday to close dozens of offices and plants in the United States and Canada, though production shortages were unlikely if power was restored by the weekend.

General Motors Corp. , Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler arm all shut down their headquarters and most of their offices and plants in four counties around Detroit. Utility officials have said the city may not get all its power back before Sunday, and the outage has interfered with the city's water supply as well.

GM spokesman Pat Morissey said 17 plants in Michigan, Ohio, and Canada had been shut down today by the blackout, including seven assembly plants.

"Some plants could resume operations Sunday, and we hope all of them are up and running by Monday," Morissey said.

Ford spokesman Ed Lewis said 23 of Ford's 44 North American plants had been affected by the outage Thursday afternoon, and that most of them were still down Friday.

Some of the plants had power restored Friday afternoon, but a few remained shut down because either they did not have parts or local officials asked Ford to keep the plants closed to conserve power.

A Chrysler representative could not be reached for comment. Parts maker Visteon Corp. also shut down its offices and plants in the region.

The massive outage hit Michigan, New York, Ohio, New Jersey and parts of Canada on Thursday afternoon, where much of the domestic auto industry's plants and offices are concentrated. Traffic was also snarled at the Ambassador Bridge, the major freight connection between Detroit and Ontario, with back-ups of up to four miles reported Friday.

All three automakers have more than two months' worth of new vehicles in inventory and on dealer lots, making shortages unlikely. An unplanned plant shutdown can hit earnings directly, since automakers book revenues when a vehicle is built, but short interruptions in production can usually be made up by running overtime.

"It's not a concern," said Erich Merkle, an auto analyst with research firm IRN Inc. "This is just going to be a temporary thing. If you had something that went on for two to three weeks, certainly there'd be some impact."

The wild card in restarting the plants may be the status of parts plants in the regions. Most plants use just-in-time inventory systems, keeping as little as a few hours' worth of supply on hand at any given time.

"That's one of the things we're dealing with, and assessing -- if and when the plants come back on line, where is the supply chain," Lewis said.

The automakers said they were lucky that the blackout came just before a weekend in August, when few plants schedule any production.