Swedish lorry maker Volvo Trucks said on March 4 it would halt production at its assembly plant in Sweden for one week a month until demand picks up. Production at the Tuve plant in Gothenburg, in southwestern Sweden, "will be stopped several days here and there every month, totaling about a week a month," Volvo Trucks spokesman Stefan Karlsson said.
"Time will tell how long we will need to do this, depending on when demand starts to pick up again," he said, adding: "There are no signs of an upswing yet."
Employees, who will receive full pay, will either be entitled to days off, professional training or maintenance projects, he said.
The Tuve factory was Volvo Trucks' second-biggest assembly plant in 2008, rolling out 25,300 lorries. In 2007, it produced 24,000 trucks.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009
