PSA Peugeot Citroën has cut back its production in France to give its workers extra breaks as temperatures continue to soar.
French manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroën has cut back its production to give its workers extra breaks as temperatures continue to soar.
Temperatures in France are averaging 30 degrees Celcius and have even spiked to a high of 40 deg C.
reports that PSA is already scrapping its weekend and third shifts due to a fall in demand for new cars in western Europe this year. PSA said in July it was cutting output by 57 000 units in the third quarter and 16 000 in the fourth quarter at some plants. There are five PSA factories in France, which produce about 1 800 cars a day.
Chairman Jean-Martin Folz says PSA is still set to sell 3,35 million vehicles this year globally. “We clearly missed our targets in the first half,” he says. “But faced with a slowing market and rising euro, we have boosted market share and sales and seen our operating margin fall by only one point — it is not that bad.”
PSA is now introducing extra “heat breaks” to help workers cope. A spokesman says this will result in about 50 fewer cars being built in France a day.
“Staff get an extra heat break for every day temperatures go above 33 degrees,” a PSA spokesman says. “This cuts output by roughly 10 cars a day in each factory, but isn’t having a huge impact given that we are cutting production anyway.”