FRANKFURT, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Carmaker SEAT, a division of German giant Volkswagen AG , said it would be difficult to post a profit this year after problems with the production of its new Ibiza model, a German magazine reported on Sunday.
"Our figures at the moment are below last year's, as we had problems switching over to the new Ibiza," Andreas Schleef, Chairman of the unit told Automobilwoche in an interview.
"We won't achieve our targets this year - we can't make up for the lost 25,000 units," said Schleef, adding that while the firm was trying to avoid a loss it would be "very difficult to show a profit."
Last year SEAT posted sales of 6.3 billion euros ($6.16 billion) with an operating result of 63 million.
In the second quarter of 2002 the Volkswagen group posted sales of 22.8 billion euros, down one percent from the period a year earlier, and operating profit of 1.4 billion euros. Pre-tax profit was 1.27 billion.
Schleef said he saw cost savings potential in the production, which was not flexible enough, the magazine reported. He said the firm suffers from a high absentee quota.
On Thursday SEAT said it plans to transfer about 10 percent of the production of its Ibiza model to Slovakia from its plant near Barcelona in Spain, because of a failure to reach agreement with Spanish unions on working more days to meet demand for the vehicle, a Spanish news agency reported.