NSK insists halt to work on Walbrzych plant is temporary

Katsuyuki Kambara, president of NSK Polska, has said that the planned suspension of construction at a new steering systems factory in Walbrzych will only be temporary. He insisted that the interruption to the work on the factory, which has so far cost $19 million, will be only for the time being. The decision was made after Ford Motor Company announced in October that it was reducing to a third its $165 million order for a million steering systems from the Walbrzych factory. The news that work on the plant is to be suspended has come as a surprise to the city authorities in Walbrzych, who say they have not been informed. The decision was preceded by an announcement from NSK, the Japanese parent company, of a restructuring and cost-cutting program that will lead to 1,500 redundancies in its European operations. The move has been brought about by a market slump and poor financial results in the first half of the year. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 24) P.W.