Saab suppliers and unions have issued a qualified welcome to news the Swedish automaker aims to restart production this Friday (27 May), with overdue payment details remaining unclear.
The manufacturer is looking for all its workforce to be at the Trollhattan factory by mid-week in order for lines to start rolling by Friday, but the Scandinavian automotive suppliers association (FKG) is reserving judgement on the latest investment potential by Chinese distributor Pang Da.
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“To be very frank, I have stopped reading about all different kinds of changes in their [Saab] agreement,” FKG managing director Sven-Ake Berglie told just-auto from Sweden. “I am just waiting for the very concrete statement by Saab because we can’t follow everything Mr [Victor] Muller is doing – it’s impossible.
“We have no detailed information today about…negotiations and payback of overdue invoices, about future credit terms.”
The FKG chief insisted his supplier members were still owed “hundreds of millions” of Swedish Krone, although a EUR30m (US$42m) cash payment from Pang Da has already been banked to allow the production of 1,300 cars.
Around 1,000 Saab production staff have been at home for several weeks now as the automaker has wrestled with a complex series of financial initiatives – including a previous Chinese deal with Hawtai that did not come to fruition – but a Saab spokeswoman said it aimed to have all its workforce back at Trollhattan this Wednesday for a 27 May restart.
Saab’s main union IF Metall also issued a cautious welcome to any possible resumption of work and was due to meet the manufacturer to discuss a restart schedule.
“Saab has a plan to restore production on Friday,” an IF Metall spokesman in Sweden told just-auto. “It will be very good if this will happen now.
“I hope it will happen but we have not had a meeting with the company yet – we will meet this week. Of course we welcome this news.”
The IF Metall spokesman was unable to give any timetable for when Saab production – normally running at one daily shift – would be up to full speed.
