Volvo, one of the world's top heavy-duty truck makers, said on Oct. 29 it would cut 600 more jobs in Sweden and Belgium, just a month after it announced 1,400 layoffs in the two countries.
Volvo Trucks spokesman Tommy Kohle said there would now be a total of 520 permanent job cuts in Volvo's cab factory in the northern Swedish town of Umeaa and 860 in the southwestern town of Gothenburg. In Belgium, a total of 600 temporary contracts would be discontinued, he said.
"The problem is that since we made (the September 30) announcement, the development in the world economy has continued as you know to go the wrong way. The effect is that many customers now want to wait and see how things develop," Kohle said.
"We still know that there is an underlying transport need... Society will go on. They will use the trucks they have, but we expect that they will wait for the financial turmoil to stabilize before putting in any new orders," he said, adding "we need to adjust our capacity to this situation."
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2008
