By Christina Zander Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
TROLLHATTAN, Sweden (Dow Jones)--Swedish car maker Saab Automobile said Thursday that production at its Trollhattan plant will resume Friday.
"We still need to work out the logistics with one of our suppliers, but that is such a small detail, so we will be able to start up the production tomorrow," Saab purchase and production manager Gunnar Brunius told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview Thursday.
The Saab plant in Trollhattan has been idle for almost two months because suppliers stopped delivering parts when the car maker didn't pay its bills.
Last week, however, Saab's owner Spyker Cars NV (SPYKR.AE), announced a deal with Chinese car distributor Pang Da Automobile Trade Co. Ltd.(601258.SH) that provided Saab with much-needed short-term funding and since then the company has been in negotiation with its suppliers over debt payments and new deliveries.
Getting the production up and running by Friday, in time for a visit from Pang Da representatives, was the company's internal goal, but up until Thursday the outcome of negotiations with suppliers was still uncertain.
"It's been intense," said Brunius. "We have to get everything--from supplier deliveries to the plant itself--going again."
He expects that there will be disturbances in the production for quite some time ahead before everything runs smoothly again.
There are 6,500 cars in the Trollhattan plant waiting to be completed and, according to Brunius, they will all be finished before summer vacations start in July with no need for extra staff.
The announcement from Saab that production will resume Friday was good news to Paul Akerlund, mayor of the city of Trollhattan. As an employer of 38,00 workers, Saab is an important provider of jobs for the city's roughly 60,000 residents.
"It's a bumpy road ahead and there are still problems, but this is of great symbolic value, not least for all the people who work there," he said, adding "This should start to generate some much-needed income to the company."
He expressed irritation over the fact that the Swedish government hadn't yet approved the Russian financier Vladimir Antonov as owner of Saab as thousands of jobs were at stake.
"If Saab disappears, 10,000 people would be out of a job, not just here in Trollhattan but in surrounding municipalities as well," he said.
It is the second time in little over a year that the future of Saab has been in question. The company was going through a restructuring process when Spyker bought it from former owner General Motors Co. (GM) in February 2010. Akerlund, a former Saab employee, sees the risk in Trollhattan being too dependent on just one company.
"Twelve years ago we were 40% dependent on Saab, today it's 28%, but I do hope that Saab will live on," he said.
He thinks that there is reason to be critical of Saab's management for ending up in a situation where production had to be halted, but he will join them later Thursday to welcome the representatives of Saab's new Chinese partner to Trollhattan and show the local government's support for Saab.
"I want Saab to live on," he said. "Trollhattan would be empty without it."
"We still need to work out the logistics with one of our suppliers, but that is such a small detail, so we will be able to start up the production tomorrow," Saab purchase and production manager Gunnar Brunius told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview Thursday.
The Saab plant in Trollhattan has been idle for almost two months because suppliers stopped delivering parts when the car maker didn't pay its bills.
Last week, however, Saab's owner Spyker Cars NV (SPYKR.AE), announced a deal with Chinese car distributor Pang Da Automobile Trade Co. Ltd.(601258.SH) that provided Saab with much-needed short-term funding and since then the company has been in negotiation with its suppliers over debt payments and new deliveries.
Getting the production up and running by Friday, in time for a visit from Pang Da representatives, was the company's internal goal, but up until Thursday the outcome of negotiations with suppliers was still uncertain.
"It's been intense," said Brunius. "We have to get everything--from supplier deliveries to the plant itself--going again."
He expects that there will be disturbances in the production for quite some time ahead before everything runs smoothly again.
There are 6,500 cars in the Trollhattan plant waiting to be completed and, according to Brunius, they will all be finished before summer vacations start in July with no need for extra staff.
The announcement from Saab that production will resume Friday was good news to Paul Akerlund, mayor of the city of Trollhattan. As an employer of 38,00 workers, Saab is an important provider of jobs for the city's roughly 60,000 residents.
"It's a bumpy road ahead and there are still problems, but this is of great symbolic value, not least for all the people who work there," he said, adding "This should start to generate some much-needed income to the company."
He expressed irritation over the fact that the Swedish government hadn't yet approved the Russian financier Vladimir Antonov as owner of Saab as thousands of jobs were at stake.
"If Saab disappears, 10,000 people would be out of a job, not just here in Trollhattan but in surrounding municipalities as well," he said.
It is the second time in little over a year that the future of Saab has been in question. The company was going through a restructuring process when Spyker bought it from former owner General Motors Co. (GM) in February 2010. Akerlund, a former Saab employee, sees the risk in Trollhattan being too dependent on just one company.
"Twelve years ago we were 40% dependent on Saab, today it's 28%, but I do hope that Saab will live on," he said.
He thinks that there is reason to be critical of Saab's management for ending up in a situation where production had to be halted, but he will join them later Thursday to welcome the representatives of Saab's new Chinese partner to Trollhattan and show the local government's support for Saab.
"I want Saab to live on," he said. "Trollhattan would be empty without it."
Source: online.wsj.com
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