Volvo Shuts Down Swedish Factory For One Week
October 15th, 2012 10:27 AM
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Anemic demand is causing Volvo to shut down their main Swedish factory for one week, starting October 29th.
The shutdown coincides with a holiday week in Sweden, but the move still comes at a time when European auto sales are struggling amidst dire economic conditions. Volvo is targeting sales of 800,000 units worldwide by 2020, and company officials say that they are still on track to meet this goal.
The most troubling piece of information comes from Jan Gurander, Volvo’s acting CEO, who told Reuters
“Europe is the main market for Volvo Car Corp. and the continued recession is naturally affecting the demand for our cars,”
That’s enough to put anyone in the hospital. Unfortunately, stress related incidents are a very real phenomenon.
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Atleast Volvo is not quite the Swedish patient yet, unlike Saab which had been a basket case for a while. Slowly they'll move lock stock & barrel to Middle Kingdom.
Volvo has one foot in the grave.They will be shutting down soon for good.
The only hope for Volvo is to go to China. The brand still has name recognition, which Chinese companies crave. It simply costs too much to make cars in Europe. As a Volvo owner (pre-Ford), it saddens me to see Volvo in its current state. Depreciation is steep, fuel economy is poor, and clearly product development has stalled (see XC90). Yes, the clock is ticking for Volvo.
No correlation between the plant shutdown and the Swedish national holiday? Not having to pay for childcare for a week is a big deal to a lot of people. You'll probably see people taking off work, where you work between Christmas and New years.