Ford to Cut Fiesta Output in Germany

Ford Motor Co. will suspend production at its Fiesta small car plant in Cologne, Germany, for an undetermined period between now and October in response to weak demand in southern Europe.

Cologne's Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger reports that Ford plans to cut as many as 16 days of production between May and October. Ford tells Bloomberg News it will idle the plant for eight days before the normal summer break begins in July and will decide later whether to add more downtime through August.

Ford has applied for government approval to shorten workers' hours, which will affect about 4,000 employees.

The company tells Bloomberg the Cologne plant is currently scheduled to build 345,000 vehicles this year, down 6% from its output in 2011. More than 85% of the factory's output is exported.