Saturday, October 11, 2008
Falling sales halt car production
The Vauxhall car plant in Cheshire is to stop production for 14 days this month due to falling sales in Europe.
Vehicles will not be made at the Ellesmere Port plant for two days this week and next week, and will also shut for two working weeks from 20 October.
A spokesman for parent company General Motors (GM) said the stoppages were to accommodate changes in demand.
Jaguar Land Rover announced last month its Halewood plant in Merseyside would close for a week after orders fell.
A GM statement said: "General Motors Europe is carefully watching the development of the various car and van markets in Europe so that we can react quickly and efficiently to changes in demand.
"This way, we can increase production in times of rising demand, as we did this year when we added extra shifts to accommodate markets in Eastern Europe."
She added: "It follows, then, that in markets in which demand is reducing, in this case due to the current European economic situation, we must also adjust production.
"This flexibility is a strategy that shows GM Europe has learned from the past and will not simply keep building cars or vans for stock in changing markets."
A spokesman for the Unite union said the 2,200 workers at the plant would still get paid despite the stoppages.
DATED: 11.10.08
FEED: AW
