UPDATE 1-FACTBOX-Production curbs by European vehicle makers

Published 12/01/2008, 01:08 PM
Updated 12/01/2008, 01:10 PM
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(Adds measures adopted by Fiat, Renault, PSA)

Dec 1 (Reuters) - European car and truck makers are cutting working hours, extending normal year-end holidays and shutting down factories to slow output at a time of slumping demand.

Measures announced so far include:

FORD

Ford in Germany is reducing output by nearly 4 percent this year and cutting 500 part-time and temporary jobs, its head told German newspaper Die Welt

MAN

Shutting three German truck plants from Dec. 12 to Jan. 9 to clear out overtime accumulated by about 14,000 full-time staff. Normally it takes two weeks off for Christmas. It says it will probably apply this month for shorter working hours.

DAIMLER

Discussing cutting the work week to less than 30 hours for about 50,000 staff at four German plants from the start of January through April.

BMW

Suspended production at its factory in Leipzig for a week last month and is operating only one shift a day there. The company plans to cut 400 further temporary workers in Leipzig, in addition to previously announced plans to cut 8,100 full-time jobs around the world. It closed two other plants during Bavarian autumn holidays from Nov. 3 to 7.

VOLKSWAGEN

Considering suspending production at its main Wolfsburg plant from Dec. 18 to Jan. 11. Its luxury brand Audi is considering similar measures.

PORSCHE

Closed its main plant for one day in November and plans to shut for another seven days before end-January.

PSA PEUGEOT CITROEN

Announced in October it would cut production by 30 percent from what it had originally planned for the fourth quarter.

Confirmed in November there would be site closures ranging from a few days to a few weeks, without specifying which plants would be closed and for how long.

Announced on Nov. 20 it would cut up to 3,550 jobs. It is due to present voluntary departure plans to its works council on Dec. 2. The group has already cut 7,400 jobs through voluntary redundancy since 2007.

RENAULT

Said in November it planned to cut output in an attempt to get close to the 5.9 billion euros ($7.63 billion) of inventory it had at the end of last year, by the end of 2008.

The Dacia Pitesti plant in Romania was set to close from Nov. 20 to Dec. 3 and STA Ruitz will shut from Dec. 10 to Jan 3.

In Spain, the Valladolid assembly plant will stop production for 11 days, while the Palencia plant will shut for seven days in November and seven days in December.

Renault will also stop the assembly line at its Moscow plant, which produces the Logan, from Dec. 12 to Dec. 31.

In September, the group announced a plan to cut 6,000 jobs across Europe through voluntary redundancy.

FIAT

Unions said on Nov. 12 that Fiat would shut down its six plants in Italy for four to six weeks in December and January.

In addition, it halted production at its Mirafiori plant in Turin for the last week of November.

The measures come after Fiat had already shut down the plants down for brief periods between August and November.

In Brazil, it shut its Betim plant down from Nov. 11 to 26.

Magneti Marelli, a Fiat subsidiary that makes electronic systems, has scheduled stoppages of up to 50 days at two of its plants in Catalonia, eastern Spain, according to a Nov. 9 report in El Pais newspaper.

(Reporting by Michael Shields in Frankfurt, Gilles Castonguay in Milan and Helen Massy-Beresford in Paris; Editing by Andrew Macdonald) (michael.shields@thomsonreuters.com, Reuters Messaging: michael.shields.reuters.com@reuters.net; +49 69 7565 1266))

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