Daewoo-FSO returns to work with production slashed

Polish car maker Daewoo-FSO, a unit of South Korea's ailing Daewoo, restarted production on Monday after a three- week stoppage but immediately announced plans to slash output next year. According to Maciej Motelski, Daewoo-FSO's head of production and development, the stoppage enabled the company to reduce new car reserves before the end of 2000. Motelski said that Daewoo-FSO had planned to cut output to 126,000 cars next year from an earlier 193,000 and hopes to sell 113,000 cars next year, roughly 22% of the domestic market. In addition, a new car model Tacuma, to be assembled in the Zeran plant starting in December, was previewed yesterday. Daewoo-FSO has been under a cloud since its Korean parent hit financial problems, and the company's official declaration of bankruptcy this month will further complicate life at the Warsaw plant. (Reuters, Rzeczpospolita, p.B3)