PARIS, March 25 (Reuters) - French building materials company Saint-Gobain said on Monday it is closing a glass windscreen factory in Belgium at a cost of 263 jobs as it grapples with the effects of Europe's shrinking auto market.
The factory, located in the southern Belgian town of Auvelais, is a supplier to a Ford car-assembly plant in eastern Belgium that the U.S. automaker plans to shutter by the end of 2014.
The debt crisis has severely hit the auto sector in Europe, where new car registrations have declined 24 percent in the last five years.