Fiat to cut 1,500 jobs in Poland over weak European car marketDecember 8, 2012 - 14:52 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Italian car giant Fiat has said it will cut 1,500 jobs in Poland because of the weak car market in Europe, BBC News reported. The layoffs will be made at the carmaker's plant in the southern city of Tychy, which makes the Fiat 500. Production at the plant has fallen during the economic downturn as output is adjusted to meet falling demand. Demand for new cars in the European Union fell by almost 10% in October compared with a year earlier, with all the major markets contracting. "Current market conditions and the negative outlook represent a major challenge for Fiat Auto Poland," the carmaker said. "The market segment for cars produced at Tychy - the A segment - has been the worst affected." Total production at the plant, which also makes the Fiat Panda, as well as the Lancia Ypsilon and Ford Ka, will be less than 350,000 this year, compared with 600,000 in 2009. Production is expected to fall below 300,000 next year. "The company explained to unions that the significant reduction in production volumes necessitated scaling back activity at the plant from three to two shifts," Fiat said. "Those organizational changes will result in some 1,500 redundancies." Top stories Yerevan has dismissed Turkey’s demand to shut down the Armenian nuclear power plant as “inappropriate”. Armenia will loan 2.9 billion drams to Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh), according to a draft government decision. The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan has “strongly condemned” Armenia’s decision. Kerobyan has said that for the first time in the history of Armenia, the volume of foreign direct investments amounted to about $1 billion. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. Baku: EU, U.S. share responsibility for Armenia’s “destabilizing actions” Azerbaijan has declared that the European Union and the United States will share responsibility for any destabilizing actions of Armenia |