VW to halt Czech car production as market sours
PRAGUE, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG's (VOWG.DE) Skoda Auto, the biggest Czech company by turnover, said on Monday it would halt production for a week at the end of October due to poor demand on other European markets.
"This includes all our plants in the Czech Republic," spokesman Jaroslav Cerny said.
The stoppage will cut production by about 13,000 cars. Skoda had earlier planned to halt work for two days including the Oct. 28 national holiday but extended the stoppage.
Skoda is highly dependent on west European markets which have shown a drop due to the sharp economic downturn and a financial crisis.
The Czech Republic, a country of 10.3 million, is highly dependent on the car industry which employs 120,000 people.
At the end of this year, Hyundai (005380.KS) will open a new assembly plant in the eastern city of Ostrava, which is expected to help counterbalance weakness elsewhere in the industry.
Czech domestic demand for cars has so far held up, but importers said on Monday the outlook was unclear.
The Car Importers' Association (SDA) said that 109,000 passenger and 45,972 light utility trucks -- often passenger cars with tiny modifications -- were registered in the first nine months, up 10.4 percent year-on-year.
"The trend has been to keep (car imports) around 10 to 12 percent up at the end of the year, which I think we can manage because we only have a few months left (till the year's end)," SDA Secretary Pavel Tunkl told a news conference.
"But it's hard to tell what will happen next year," he added, hinting at concerns that a global economic slowdown could seriously hurt demand. (Reporting by Jan Lopatka and Jana Mlcochova; Editing by David Cowell)
