Fiat Group is planning to temporarily lay off workers at four of its six Italian assembly plants - Mirafiori (above,) Melfi, Pomigliano d'Arco and Termini Imerese - in the autumn as the slowdown in new car buying across Europe continues to impact.

Fiat is going to temporarily lay off workers at four of its six Italian plants in September as the slowdown in new car buying across Europe continues to impact. The unions were informed today that the plants, Mirafiori, Melfi, Pomigliano d'Arco and Termini Imerese will be shut for the one week periods.

The proposals come as the Italian new car market suffers two consecutive months of heavy falls, in June it was down nearly 20 percent year-on-year, the sixth straight month it has declined. The four assembly plants affected account for 22,000 staff, around three quarters of Fiat's employees in Italy.

Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne explained the reason for the temporary closures: "After we saw the trend in June on the Italian car market, which continues to have a heavy impact on the European market share," he said. "A couple of plants are excluded, such as at Val di Sangro, where we produce the Ducato and commercial vehicles for our French partner, and at Cassino, which is involved in the launch of the Delta," he added.

The group's agriculture-to-construction vehicles division, CNH Global will also be affected, with two of its plants set to halt production temporarily. Marchionne put the slowdown at CNH Global down to the "end of the economic cycle of the sector. He was upbeat though about this division, adding that: "We have reached the bottom and we see the sector picking up end 2008, in 2009."

The models which will see production temporarily halted at the four key plants include the Fiat's Grande Punto (Italy's best selling car this year) and the Croma station wagon, Alfa Romeo's 159 sedan and 159 Sportwagon, as well as Lancia's Ypsilon, which is assembled at the Termini Imerese factory in Sicily. The only model from the Fiat Group Automobiles range to be unaffected at this quartet of plants will be Alfa Romeo's new compact Mito model which started production last month at Mirafiori. Last week Fiat also announced that production of the Iveco Daily van range would be slowed down.

However last week Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne reiterated that the group's 2008 targets of 60 billion euros group revenues and operating profits of 3.4-3.6 billion euros were both on course to be achieved. Most European manufacturers are also affected: Europe's second biggest carmaking group, PSA Peugeot-Citroën, announced yesterday that it expects its sales to fall by around 4 pct this year. Marchionne however was more positive about Fiat's overseas operations: "Brazil and Latin America continue to go very strongly and we don't see any clouds on the horizon," he stated, adding that, "2008 and 2009 will be exceptional years."