Troubled Swedish automaker, NEVS, says it is paying some of its suppliers but not all, as unions gather in Stockholm to discuss the crisis, which has seen a production halt of the Saab 9-3 model.
Swedish component manufacturers have had their fingers burned before with the former Saab that went into bankruptcy two and half years ago, with speculation circulating in Sweden some suppliers are particularly unhappy at the current situation.
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“Our suppliers – we are paying some of them but we have said we [are] not able to pay all,” a NEVS spokesman in the automaker’s headquarters of Trollhattan told just-auto.
“We have not enough to pay all our debts as of today. We still need to get short-term financing.”
NEVS has halted production as a contractual issue with a shareholder sees it look at securing finance elsewhere, with two Asian companies, one of which is thought to be Mahindra, believed to be in the frame.
Meanwhile, NEVS’ three main labour bodies, Sveriges Ingenjorer, IF Metall and Unionen, are urgently meeting in the Swedish capital tomorrow (18 June) to discuss the situation for the 600 remaining Trollhattan employees.
NEVS says it will pay wages to the 600 staff – a number already considerably depleted since it let around 100 consultants go – on 25 June – but the situation for next month and beyond remains unclear.
“Our concern in the salaries,” IF Metall spokesman, Darko Davidovic, told just-auto from Sweden. “If they [NEVS] earn money or not, it is not our problem.
“Our immediate problem is we have 600 [people] and we are not sure they are going [to] get the salaries in June.”
NEVS added it was keeping key partners appraised of the situation, such as suppliers, the local authority and unions.
“We have still these on-going dialogues, but we have no further discussions or closures as today,” said the NEVS spokesman.
“I can’t name the partners we are in discussions with, not today.”
