GM\\\'s Opel to cut Russia production as slowdown bites

BERLIN, Sept 16 (Reuters) : US carmaker General Motors  is cutting production and shedding around 500 jobs at its Opel division in Russia, hit by a plunge in local demand due to a slowing economy and Western sanctions.
Opel said on Tuesday it would scale back production at its plant in St. Petersburg to a total of 16 days during the three-month period from August to October.
It will also offer voluntary severance packages to about a quarter of the plant's 2,000 staff and accelerate a move to use more local suppliers - a shift that will help it to cope with a weakening Russian rouble.
Auto sales have slumped in Russia this year as slowing economic growth is causing people to put off purchases.
Western sanctions over the crisis in Ukraine and the devaluing rouble RUB= are causing further strains to carmakers. The rouble is this year's biggest-declining major emerging currency, having lost more than 15 per cent in value.
Russian passenger car sales tumbled 23 per cent in July alone, extending their year-to-date drop to almost 10 per cent.
General Motors (GM) is one of the foreign carmakers most exposed to Russia. Its share of the local market shrank to 7.8 per cent in January-August from 9 per cent a year ago.
"Russia was our third-biggest market last year after the UK and Germany," Opel Chief Executive Karl-Thomas Neumann said. "At the moment, this market is locked into severe turbulences."
Russia's top automaker Avtovaz said last month it would cut production of its Lada cars by 25,000 vehicles between September and November, though workers would continue to get their full salary.