PARIS, Nov 20 (Reuters) - French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen plans to cut 2,700 jobs and said on Thursday that due to the financial crisis and the sector's turmoil car sale volumes in main European markets would drop by at least 10 percent in 2009 and 17 percent in the fourth quarter. Peugeot said it will present the plan to its works council on Dec. 2.
It also involves the re-assignments of workers to other group sites while another 850 people at the Rennes site could be concerned by a plan for voluntary redundancies. Human Resources Director Jean-Luc Vergne said in a statement that if the group did not act, it could have put the future of the carmaker and its 200,000 jobs in danger.
PSA Peugeot Citroen slashed its 2008 profitability outlook in October and announced "massive" production cuts to combat the sales crisis that is hitting auto makers, after posting a 5.2 percent drop in third-quarter turnover. Peugeot shares fell 3.3 percent to 12.89 euros by 0812 GMT.
Keywords: PEUGEOT CITROEN/ (Reporting by Caroline Jacobs, editing by Marcel Michelson paris.equities@news.reuters.com; Reuters Messaging: caroline.jacobs.reuters.com@reuters.net; +33 1 49 49 53 43) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2008. All rights reserved.
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