Nissan closes UK factory for two weeks

by Paul Conneally | October 20, 2008 at 10:45 pm

1151 views | 21 Recommendations | 15 comments

Nissan will close its Sunderland factory from Friday for two weeks. This is due to the global financial downturn resulting in lower sales of its Micra and Note models.

When it finally opens again it will run only ten production lines, run them 10% slower,and only for 3 day a week.

Although this will affect all workers there are no planned redundancies at the moment.

The deteriorating conditions for UK manufacturing were starkly underlined yesterday by news that falling orders have forced the carmaker Nissan to halt production for two of its Sunderland-made models for two weeks.

Production of the Micra and Note has been cancelled from Friday. When output of the models resumes on November 10 their production lines will, for the next fortnight, run only an average of three days a week and speed will be cut by 10 per cent to slow output.

These moves at the UK's biggest carmaking site will affect 800 employees currently working on Micra, a super-mini, and Note, a small family car. Affected workers will not lose wages. For the fortnight's nonproduction they will attend work for training. Other lost days will be recouped with extra shifts at a later date.

Yesterday Trevor Mann, Nissan's senior vicepresident for manufacturing in Europe, said the move was a response to a "quite dramatic and very real downturn". "This situation has been caused by the global economic downturn - nobody is immune," he said.

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KristjánJóhann

at 16:17 on October 22nd, 2008

I took this photo in Akureyri, Iceland during so called "Cardays". Nissan Skyline R33 GTS-T vs BMW in the 1/8 mile dragrace.

KristjánJóhann has contributed a photo to this story.

ERGimages

at 16:59 on October 22nd, 2008

I was invited to shoot a private practice session by Blake Fuller in Bradenton Florida.

ERGimages has contributed a photo to this story.

Ca3ey

at 17:07 on October 22nd, 2008

This is my 2002 Maxima GLE. I am really thankful and surprised about how much attention my little Nissan has got on the net. It makes me think I should have taken it to some shows and saw what I could win. I hope it shows people that you can make your car stand out in the crowd and still be tasteful and simple at the same time. Happy modding.

Ca3ey has contributed a photo to this story.

Harrison Brooks

at 17:15 on October 22nd, 2008

Nissan's are one of my favorite cars and anytime I get a chance I take a photo of these wonderful machines and I take my camera with me and shoot away.

I thank you NowPublic for using my photo.

-Harrison Brooks

Harrison Brooks has contributed a photo to this story.

coppermine

at 23:15 on October 22nd, 2008

Nissan has just released the GTR (Skyline) in the United States. This high end sports car will be expensive at a time when buyers are looking for better gas mileage. I hope this model does well.

coppermine has contributed a photo to this story.

peterlmorris

at 19:47 on October 22nd, 2008

Photo taken by David Ryan, for use by Peter Morris

peterlmorris has contributed a photo to this story.

Edmund Jenks

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 20:11 on October 22nd, 2008

LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Crowd Powered Plus - Thanks for the motorsports tag!

sko11ie

at 22:12 on October 22nd, 2008

sko11ie has contributed a photo to this story.

valco6

at 22:16 on October 22nd, 2008

This is a shot of the Nissan logo on my 1996 Maxima GXE. I was mostly playing around with my new Nikon D60 when I took it. It's still running strong with over 160k miles.

valco6 has contributed a photo to this story.

Hermis

at 00:15 on October 23rd, 2008

Nissan at Helsinki Motorshow 2006.

Hermis has contributed a photo to this story.

Jordan Yerman

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 04:34 on October 23rd, 2008

LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff.

mpgomatic

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 08:56 on October 23rd, 2008

It's kind of Nissan not to ding the workers wages.

ferryca

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 05:08 on October 24th, 2008

I'm glad Nissan didn't make plans to cut jobs in the factory. The company said it would lay off 1,680 jobs in Barcelona, northeastern Spain, as the economic downturn in Europe weakened demand for its larger 4X4 and trucks.