Saab plans to restart production today, report says

ERJ staff report (AN)

Stockholm (Reuters) -- Saab plans to restart its production line in Sweden on Friday (today) after six weeks of being idle due to cash flow problems, a Swedish business daily reported on Thursday.

Dagens Industri quoted Gunnar Brunius, Saab's vice president of purchasing and manufacturing, as saying that the Dutch-owned carmaker aimed to start off slowly, rolling out 100 cars on Friday instead of its usual 230 to 240 per day production.

"We have decided to get going on Friday and we are going to do everything we can to get this moving," Brunius was quoted as saying.

Saab was not immediately available for comment.

Saab owner Spyker has been struggling to turn the Swedish carmaker around and ran out of cash to pay its suppliers, halting production and pushing it to the brink of collapse.

It has been seeking a variety of solutions to ease its cash flow problems but has had to wait for approvals from authorities in Sweden and the European Investment Bank according to the terms of an outstanding loan.

Chinese car distributor Pangda is waiting for regulatory approval at home for its rescue of Saab in a deal worth up to 110 million euros ($154.7 million).

Spyker received an advance payment of 30 million euros from Pangda last week and had hoped to restart production by the end of this week.

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From Automotive News (A Crain publication)