PSA-Toyota Czech car production falls 20% in 2012
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PRAGUE (Reuters) -- Production at TPCA, the Czech car assembly plant jointly owned by Toyota Motor Corp. and PSA/Peugeot-Citroen, fell by a fifth to 215,000 vehicles in 2012 due to weak European demand, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
The plant, which employs 3,000 workers, makes the Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 107 and Citroen C1 minicars. The facility has an annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles.
"The situation on the European market is such that a stagnation or drop is expected this year," TPCA spokesman Radek Knava said on Tuesday.
The car industry is a key engine of the export-reliant Czech economy, which has contracted since the middle of 2011 due to falling household consumption and slowing trade in the wake of the eurozone debt crisis.
Skoda, the Czech unit of Volkswagen, is the country's biggest car producer. Hyundai Motor also runs a plant in the central European country.
PSA, like many European mass-market manufacturers, has been particularly badly hit by falling sales in the austerity-hit markets of Europe. In response, the carmaker is cutting some 10,000 jobs and closing a plant in France.
PSA's deliveries in EU and EFTA countries fell 12.9 percent in 2012 to 1.46 million cars, outpacing an overall market drop of 7.8 percent to 12.5 million, according to data from the industry organization ACEA. Toyota Group sales fell 2.5 percent to 540,990 in the same period.
Automotive News Europe contributed to this report
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