[psp62in]

13/11/2008
As the economic downturn continues to bite Fiat Group Automobiles is to halt production at all its plants across Italy for periods during December and January as the national carmaker adjusts to the decreased demand for its cars.
During the factory shutdown periods the Fiat workers will be paid through the state-supported "cassa integrazione" scheme. This sees the laid off staff receiving their basic wages from a government sponsored fund plus further contributions from Fiat.

Source: ::ITALIASPEED::

[hillram]

This will further delay the Grande Punto and Linea launches in India...

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by hillram

This will further delay the Grande Punto and Linea launches in India...

No this rather means that it will be coming faster. Indian market is still a hope right now. And now even Fiat can now import CKD in India.
Anyways, its almost confirmed that Linea is coming on 23rd November 2008.


Entire European auto Industry is now facing the problem.
Source :
European Auto Industry Also Suffering from Dramatic Sales Decline - worldcarfans

Article:

GM is in trouble and everyone knows it. But GM Europe also lost $1 billion (US) in the 3rd quarter of the year and many of its European competitors are being hurt too by a dramatic fall in sales.

But because European automakers are not in the same kind of trouble their US counterparts are, the prospects for bailouts in Europe remain slim.

On Tuesday, the German government turned down a request for aid from General Motors targeted at their factories in Germany. GM Europe's Opel division has pushed the German government for a 40 billion euro loan to the automotive industry from the European Investment Bank.

Sales have fallen dramatically in both Western and Eastern Europe and have even slowed in a fast-growing market like Russia. All automakers, including Toyota, have had to drastically reduce their sales projections for 2009.

BMW sales were down 9.2% for October in Europe. Mercedes-Benz cars were down 18.1%, their first decline in 15 years.

GM Europe sales were down 12.3% for the third quarter of the year.

Ford of Europe sales were down 12.4% for the month of October in its main 19 European markets.

Car sales have been hurt by sagging consumer confidence and a lack of available credit to fund car purchases. And European automakers' credit division are no longer providing the profits they once did as they experience the fallout from the global credit crunch.

While European automakers have not announced any plant closings, in many cases, they have shut down production.

GM Europe reduced its yearly production by 40,000 vehicles by closing down most of its plants during the month of October.

BMW said it would idle its Regensburg plant for four weeks starting December 8th.

Fiat has scheduled two plants in Spain to close for 50 days.

Renault has announced a two week Christmas stoppage at its Dacia plant in Romania.

2009 will be a tough year for automakers in Europe too. But they, at least, stand a good chance of surviving it.

[rranjith_kum]

Oh god I wish the world comes out of this soon !! Only then I can dream of a good career.

[nishant_kingpin]

FIAT actually came out of problems not very long ago due to the Punto platform success across the globe. With all major manufacturers getting impacted due to the slowdown, FIAT would have a tough time due to a recent recovery as well.

Emerging markets like India may benefit out of the steady demand these economies present for manufacturers to bring excess inventory as CKD earlier than scheduled.

India too has lower demand than the boom generally during the festive season, so most players may play a wait and watch game.