With the European new car-market as a whole dropping 7.8 percent from January to October and Fiat’s traditional markets such as Italy (-19.7%), Spain (-11.9%), Greece (-39.9%) and Portugal (-38.3%) recording double-digit declines, the Italian carmaker is feeling the pressure more than any other automaker in the region.
So it doesn’t come to much of a surprise that Fiat plans to halt production of the Punto supermini at its Melfi plant in southern Italy.
A source from within the company told Reuters on Tuesday that Fiat will place some 5,000 workers on a temporary layoff scheme for more than 20 days from December 17 and December 20 until January 13.
This is not the first time Fiat has temporarily shut down its factories in Italy as the company is trying to cope with weak demand and the fact that its plants are currently running at 50 percent capacity, according to a report from Autonews, which is well below normal.
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