OREANDA-NEWS. St. Petersburg General Motors plant stopped the conveyor for two weeks, until October 27th, this is the latest idle for this year, the company announced earlier. The total period of stopping of the main production from the end of August to the end of October - is a month and a half. GM explains the measure by falling sales in the Russian market and the ruble devaluation (some car parts are imported).

"All the dates that were announced earlier will remain unchanged," - the representative of "GM Auto", Victoria Tchouikina, confirmed for the agency "Prime".

This spring, the St. Petersburg plant GM has suspended the production for two weeks, and in June, 11 days were declared holidays. Then the plant went to work from three shifts to two. Traditional summer vacation in the company lasted longer than usual - a month. Since October, the plant switched to single-shift schedule, again, it was stated about idle - this time for six weeks.

The company said it intends to fire 500 workers and office workers. They will pay compensation packages by program of termination of employment by mutual agreement. Previously about two thousand people worked at the plant.

In addition, the carmaker said it was reviewing the terms, in which it can be launch new models into mass production. It was planned originally in 2015 to complete the expansion from 98 to 230 thousand cars. Instead, GM plans to accelerate the localization of component suppliers. Previously, GM in Russia was planning to achieve the localization in 60% by 2018.

The carmaker did not disclose how will reduce the production at St. Petersburg plant in 2014. According to experts, in the first half it was loaded by two-thirds. In general, the load of power of the enterprise may be about 25%.

St. Petersburg GM plant produces Chevrolet Cruze and Opel Astra, and it also leads SKD-assembly of TrailBlazer. Besides St. Petersburg, models are manufactured on-site partners: plant "Autotor" in Kaliningrad and "GAZ Group" in Nizhny Novgorod. Chevrolet Niva is also manufactured at the joint venture "GM-AvtoVAZ" in Togliatti.