BUCHAREST, Aug 30 (Reuters) - The Romanian unit of Ford Motor Co will stop production for one week next month to adjust to weak European market demand, it said on Friday.
Ford, which took over Romanian struggling carmaker Automobile Craiova in 2008, started production of its B-Max model at the Craiova plant last year. It now makes 370 cars per day and roughly 1,000 engines.
"In September we will have seven days during which we will not produce the B-Max," said Ford Romania spokeswoman Ana Maria Timis. "That is all we can say for now. It's a very common situation for the auto industry."
Timis added 2,500 employees, or about half of Ford Romania's workforce, will be affected by the production halt. They will receive 80 percent of their wages for the week.
Ford, which in July hiked 2013 guidance to an unchanged pre-tax loss in Europe of about $1.8 billion from $2 billion, recently closed two ancillary plants in the UK and plans to shut its Genk assembly line in Belgium at the end of 2014.