Update: December 17, 2019 at 8:20 a.m. ET

After reports surfaced Monday, Boeing officially announced it would suspend production of its 737 MAX planes in January. The company's plant in Seattle has assembled around 40 planes a month since the MAX fleet was grounded in March.

Boeing released an official statement on the decision to suspend production:

Safely returning the 737 MAX to service is our top priority. We know that the process of approving the 737 MAX's return to service, and of determining appropriate training requirements, must be extraordinarily thorough and robust, to ensure that our regulators, customers, and the flying public have confidence in the 737 MAX updates. As we have previously said, the FAA and global regulatory authorities determine the timeline for certification and return to service. We remain fully committed to supporting this process. It is our duty to ensure that every requirement is fulfilled, and every question from our regulators answered.

Throughout the grounding of the 737 MAX, Boeing has continued to build new airplanes and there are now approximately 400 airplanes in storage. We have previously stated that we would continually evaluate our production plans should the MAX grounding continue longer than we expected. As a result of this ongoing evaluation, we have decided to prioritize the delivery of stored aircraft and temporarily suspend production on the 737 program beginning next month.

We believe this decision is least disruptive to maintaining long-term production system and supply chain health. This decision is driven by a number of factors, including the extension of certification into 2020, the uncertainty about the timing and conditions of return to service and global training approvals, and the importance of ensuring that we can prioritize the delivery of stored aircraft. We will continue to assess our progress towards return to service milestones and make determinations about resuming production and deliveries accordingly.

During this time, it is our plan that affected employees will continue 737-related work, or be temporarily assigned to other teams in Puget Sound. As we have throughout the 737 MAX grounding, we will keep our customers, employees, and supply chain top of mind as we continue to assess appropriate actions. This will include efforts to sustain the gains in production system and supply chain quality and health made over the last many months.

We will provide financial information regarding the production suspension in connection with our 4Q19 earnings release in late January.

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Reports have surfaced saying Boeing officials are considering temporarily suspending or shutting down production of the 737 MAX aircraft as it remains grounded.

According to Reuters.com, members of the airplane manufacturer's board of directors met Monday to discuss the issues and future plans, causing shares of Boeing and its suppliers to drop in price on the stock market.

A decision by Boeing to halt MAX production would likely result in significant additional charges for the manufacturer and its suppliers, according to analysts. The company has already cut its production to 42 planes per month.

A source told Reuters that suppliers had asked Boeing to keep producing planes and parts to minimize disruption, but the feeling behind the scenes is the manufacturer will stop producing MAX planes, at least temporarily.

Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration responded to comments from Boeing officials that the grounded 737 MAX fleet would return to service as early as January 2020 by saying the planes would only return to service when all testing was completed.

"The FAA will take all the time it needs to ensure the aircraft is safe," agency officials said.

Governments around the world have grounded the MAX planes since March after two deadly crashes that killed a total of 346 people were attributed to issues with the 737 jets.

Boeing has faced several struggles in recent months. First, American Airlines announced last week it was canceling flights using the MAX aircraft through April 7, 2020.

In addition, Southwest Airlines received $125 million in compensation from Boeing that the carrier plans to share with its employees.

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