Car industry hit by crisis
The market financial crisis has hit the car industry and Opel, owned by General Motors Corp., has decided to halt production in its Gliwice plant for 20 days, as a response to declining orders from Western Europe, a company spokesperson said Tuesday.
Opel car factory in Gliwice has closed its production for one week with another temporarily closure scheduled for October 20 through 31. This move will reduce production by about 15,000 cars, GM Poland spokesperson Przemysław Byszewski told TVN CNBC.
The decisions are due to low demand for cars. During first eight months of 2008, Polish Opel plant manufactured 16 percent more cars than in entire 2007. "Our daily output has recently averaged 700 units a day and we're talking about a 20-day shutdown," Byszewski said.
Opel car factory in Gliwice has closed its production for one week with another temporarily closure scheduled for October 20 through 31. This move will reduce production by about 15,000 cars, GM Poland spokesperson Przemysław Byszewski told TVN CNBC.
The decisions are due to low demand for cars. During first eight months of 2008, Polish Opel plant manufactured 16 percent more cars than in entire 2007. "Our daily output has recently averaged 700 units a day and we're talking about a 20-day shutdown," Byszewski said.
German daily newspaper Bild reported that Opel is temporarily reducing the production output in its factories in Bochum and Eisenach. Manufacturing of Zafiras and Astras in the first plant will be on hold for a week, and production of Corsas in the latter will be stalled for three weeks. Opel management has not announced reduction of its staff so far, however, salary reduction cannot be ruled out.
Meanwhile, low demand for cars forced Skoda to reduce its assembly output in three plants in the Czech Republic by 13 thousand cars.
Sources: Dziennik, Dow Jones
