Chrysler will close a US minivan assembly plant and cut one of two shifts at a pick-up truck plant in the latest move by carmakers to adjust their North American capacity to meet new demand for more fuel-efficient cars and crossover vehicles.

The cutbacks will result in 2,400 job losses at the plants, both in St Louis. Chrysler, the smallest of the three Detroit carmakers, has already shrunk its workforce from 77,500 to 65,800 since Cerberus Capital Management, the New York hedge fund, bought an 80 per cent stake from Germany’s Daimler last August.