IMPORTANT NEWS: National Electric Vehicle Sweden has agreed to buy the assets of Saab Automobile and the sale is expected to be finalized during the summer.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

New stop at Saab

According to Göteborgs-Posten (GP), there is another stop at Saab. The reason is yet again shortage of parts.

The production at Saab's manufacturing plant in Trollhättan was restarted 27 May after a seven week stop due to shortage of parts caused by payment trouble. The production was up and running all of last week except for Thursday and Friday which were days off for the employees. Yesterday was also a day off since 6 June is Sweden's National Day. Today the production was restarted but was later stopped during the day because of shortage of materials and parts.

Eric Geers, Executive Director Communications at Saab, would not make a big deal out of the stop when he told GP "we have problems with just-in-time deliveries, just like we said that we would get". To Dagens Industri Geers said that these kind of short stops are not unexpected as negotiations are still ongoing with suppliers. 
Svenåke Berglie, president of the automotive suppliers association, said that Saab is a long way from finished with negotiating with all its suppliers. Many have still not been paid. Of Saab's more than 800 suppliers, most are outside Sweden.

"I've spoken last week and even today with foreign suppliers who have not been paid by Saab and they are not happy. Saab must come up with a solution which makes sure that suppliers do not build up their accounts receivable."

Gunilla Gustavs at Saab tells Swedish Radio that they expect to be up and running again tomorrow.