Japanese carmaker Nissan said Saturday its Avila plant in Spain will keep running at less than 50 percent capacity for at least three years, as unions said it was planning to lay off half the factory staff.
The Avila plant — one of several operated by Nissan in Spain — is equipped to turn out 26,000 vehicles per year, most of them small vans, but has been functioning at a fraction of its capacity since 2008, a Nissan spokesman said.
“For the past two years we have had to cut production and the situation is going to continue because our forecast is for 11,000 units per year over the next three years,” the spokesman said.
Spanish demand for cars collapsed as the country slumped into recession in the wake of the global downturn in 2008, with construction firms — the main clients for the Alteon and Cabstar model Nissan vans — particularly hard hit.
Unions at the plant in central Spain, quoted by local media, said earlier that the group was planning to lay off 300 of the factory’s 650 employees.
“Until now we have coped with the fall in production by reducing work hours, now we are going to have to look at all the possible solutions,” the Nissan spokesman said.
“We have not made any announcements, no decision has been made, we will make proposals to the works council in the next two or three weeks.”
Japan’s third largest automaker, Nissan last year slashed working hours for some 2,000 employees at its plants in Barcelona and Montcada in northeastern Spain due to falling demand.
Last July it sacked 698 people in Spain as part of a world restructuring of its operations.
