As the economic downturn continues to bite Fiat Group Automobiles is to halt production at all its plants across Italy for periods during December and January as the national carmaker adjusts to the decreased demand for its cars.

As the worldwide economic downturn continues to bite into new car sales Fiat Group Automobiles is to halt production at all its plants across Italy for periods during December and January as the national carmaker adjusts to the decreased demand for its cars. The news came from Vittorio De Martino, a representative of the union FIOM, who told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday that the factories will be shut down for between four and six weeks.

Fiat, which has six plants spread the length of Italy, has already been switching off the assembly lines for brief periods ever since the late summer, and it is an action being replicated by car manufacturers right across Europe as they struggle to cope with a sharp drop off in demand and try to reduce burgeoning inventories. Fiat's domestic market, which it is strongly reliant on, has suffered badly during the downturn, it was down 18.89 percent year-on-year in October, with the Fiat Group down 12.78 percent.

All the plants will be affected with even the production line of Alfa's new MiTo coupé in the giant Mirafiori complex in Turin stopping for a week at the end of November. Other factories to feature in the shutdown include Melfi, Cassino, Termini Imerese and Sevel Val di Sangro, the light commercial vehicle plant which is run as a joint venture with French carmaker PSA Peugeot-Citroën. Other models to grind to a halt at the end of the year will include Fiat's best-selling Grande Punto, Bravo, Multipla, Ulysse and Croma, Lancia's Ypsilon, Musa and Phedra, and Alfa Romeo's 147, 159, 159 Sportwagon and GT Coupé. The latter quartet of cars are built at Alfa Romeo's main plant, Pomigliano d'Arco, located near Naples; this will be the worst affected factory, it will shut from December 8 right through to January 11.

During the factory shutdown periods the Fiat workers will be paid through the state-supported "cassa integrazione" scheme. This sees the laid off staff receiving their basic wages from a government sponsored fund plus further contributions from Fiat. Fiat has drawn from this scheme a number of times during the past five years.