(Repeats story published late on Wednesday)
By Martin Dokoupil
PRUHONICE, Czech Republic, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The Czech
Republic's top industry, car production, will shed over 13,500
jobs in the next few months as suppliers are being hammered by
recession in the euro zone, but vehicle output will still grow
next year.
The Car Industry Association boosted on Wednesday its
estimate for overall layoffs to 13,552 people from 3,000 in
October due to slumping car demand in Europe.
The number of workers in the sector will drop to some
124,648 by June 2009, with parts makers hit the worst, a survey
among 80 percent of the association's 160 members showed.
"Nearly 70 percent of car industry firms are considering
layoffs and the biggest falls are at suppliers, where more than
10,000 workers will lose jobs," the association secretary
Antonin Sipek said after a meeting of industry leaders.
The Czech economy is highly dependent on the car industry,
which accounts for 21 percent of overall exports.
There have been no collapses in the Czech banking sector as
a result of the global turmoil but all other companies are being
hit hard, and both the central bank and the government have
repeatedly cut growth forecasts for 2009 to below 3 percent.
Economic growth slowed to 4.2 percent in the third quarter,
which is the lowest pace in four years, more than the 4.7
percent expected by the central bank, data showed earlier on
Wednesday [].
Auto makers -- led by Volkswagen AG <VOWG.DE> Skoda Auto and
TPCA, a joint Toyota-Peugeot <7203.T> <PEUP.PA> operation --
stuck to their reduced October forecast for 4 percent growth in
overall vehicle output this year to 969,017 cars.
Output should grow further as Hyundai Motor <005380.KS>
ramps up production to its eventual 300,000 target at its
factory opened earlier this year.
"Output will be somewhere around 1 million vehicles and we
will cross 1 million next year due to the launch of Hyundai's
plant," said Martin Jahn, head of Volkswagen's Russian unit and
the association.
"But we cannot expect such a massive production rise we were
used to due to the recession (in Europe)," he said.
Carmakers across the continent have announced major cuts to
production due to falling demand and many factories will close
for long periods over the Christmas holidays.
French car sales dropped 14 percent last month, while
Germany, Czech Republic's key trading partner, posted an 18
percent decline, leaving the industry on track for its worst
year there since reunification in 1990.
Skoda Auto, the top Czech firm by turnover, has announced an
extension of a shutdown set for the last two weeks in December
until Jan. 11 next year. Its planned cuts for the final three
months of 2008 would trim output by 31,000 cars.
A Skoda executive said last month the company expected a 9.5
percent rise in sales this year to 690,000 units, and will
target unchanged sales in 2009.
On a brighter note, TPCA announced in October plans to boost
capacity by 20,000 to reach 340,000 cars next year despite a
downturn in auto markets, due to rising demand for its smaller,
cheaper and more efficient cars.
(Editing by Mike Nesbit)
