Nissan Motor Co., paring production as sales slump, will keep its U.S. auto-assembly plants on a four-day workweek for the foreseeable future in a step that means less pay for factory employees.

A reduced schedule that began in late 2008 will continue “indefinitely,” spokesman Steve Parrett said today. Hourly workers in Smyrna, Tennessee, and Canton, Mississippi, are being paid only when on duty, not their usual five-day week, he said.

The lack of a timetable to resume normal production shows the strain on Tokyo-based Nissan after posting an 11 percent drop in U.S. sales last year. Japan’s third-largest automaker joined Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., the two biggest, in trimming 2008 North American production.

“This is the kind of business scenario companies need to operate under,” said Dennis Virag, president of Automotive Consulting Group in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “Sales stink, and all manufacturers are being impacted.”

While Japan’s biggest automakers haven’t followed U.S.- based competitors in shutting factories or cutting jobs, they’re under pressure to adjust to the prospect that deliveries in the world’s biggest auto market will fall again in 2009.

Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper, citing unidentified sources, reported in its Jan. 15 edition that Nissan expects an operating loss for the fiscal year that ends in March. Toyota also is forecasting an operating loss, its first in 71 years.

Altima, Titan

Nissan builds models including the Altima sedan in Smyrna and the Titan pickup in Canton. Parrett didn’t give specifics on how U.S. production volumes would be affected by the shortened workweek.

“We don’t know when it might change or if it might change,” Parrett said.

The Smyrna plant has more than 5,000 assembly workers, and Canton has more than 3,700, according to Nissan’s Web site. They aren’t represented by the United Auto Workers.

Nissan offered early-retirement incentives last year to employees in Tennessee to shrink the workforce and pare output, the company’s second such program in as many years. Virag said Toyota and Honda may have to follow Nissan in further slowing North American production.

Honda has no plans at present to go to a four-day workweek, spokesman Ron Lietzke said today.

“We’ve announced a reduced production schedule through the first quarter,” said Lietzke, who is based in Marysville, Ohio. “We’ll continue to make adjustments based on what’s going on in the marketplace.”

‘Long Way to Go’

Toyota “is doing all it can to reduce costs,” and has “a long way to go” before a move such as laying off workers would be considered, Jim Wiseman, vice president of external affairs for the automaker’s North American production unit, said in a Jan. 12 interview at the Detroit auto show.

Wiseman declined to say whether Toyota was considering an early-retirement program similar to Nissan’s. Toyota suspended production at its San Antonio truck plant and a line in Indiana for three months last year. Employees continued to receive full pay during that time.

Nissan’s U.S. operations are based in Franklin, Tennessee. The company’s American depositary receipts fell 7 cents, or 1 percent, to $6.90 at 5:20 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.

An engine plant in Decherd, Tennessee, also will reduce production, using a different approach, Parrett said. He was checking on whether Nissan’s two Mexico auto factories would be affected.

SOURCE: BLOOMBERG.COM

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Reporters hoping for a free appletini mixed by Chrysler chief executive Robert Nardelli at the Detroit Auto Show are in for a disappointment this year.

The automaker is canceling its open bar and cutting back on the showmanship normally associated with its product unveilings - like the herd of live cattle it trotted out last year to introduce the new Ram truck.

“These are unfortunate but necessary steps to help return Chrysler to a solid footing,” spokesman Rick Deneau wrote on Chrysler’s media-only Web site. “And with the government loan to help Chrysler bridge the financial crisis, it’s the right thing to do.”

Cutting back makes sense: With the economy in recession, auto sales are at crisis levels and things aren’t expected to improve soon. In all, it’s not the best time to host a major auto show. And with Chrysler and GM on the hook for $13.4 billion in federal loans to stay afloat, a little austerity might be in order.

The North American International Auto Show - which has been running for 21 years - attracts automakers and media outlets worldwide, and opens to the press on Jan. 11.

“It is going to be a very somber show,” said industry analyst Todd Turner of California-based Car Concepts, “and I don’t think anyone going into the show is thinking they are going to go against that grain.”

Some automakers won’t be going to Detroit at all. Nissan, America’s 6th biggest selling automaker, will not display there this year.

Number five, Honda, will have a booth at the show, where a sheet will be pulled off the final production of the Honda Insight hybrid. There will be no press conference, though, just that very literal unveiling.

And Toyota, which is expected to report later this year that it suffered its first operating loss since 1950, is cutting back. The carmaker will be flying in fewer top executives from Japan, and it has called off its usual lavish dinner for select journalists.

Events of the past year may have forced a lot of changes in what the automakers will reveal at this show, said Motor Trend magazine’s Detroit editor, Todd Lassa. A shuffling of line-ups may have taken place, he said, caused by economic distress as well uncertainty about new government fuel economy standards, which are still under review.

“I think they closed down the 2008 Detroit show thinking they were going to ramp things down,” he said, “so now they’re ramping them down even more.”

There will likely be fewer eye-popping concept cars at this year’s show, Lassa said. Overpowered show cars like the Jeep Hurricane, an off-roader with two Hemi V8 engines that appeared at the 2005 show, are off-limits now.

“I think there are probably some introductions that were pulled because they want to show real cars and appear to be sensible,” Lassa said.

But the industry still needs to show - and sell - new products.

“Our product cadence has not changed,” said Ford spokesman Jay Ward.

Ford (F, Fortune 500) will reveal several new models at this year’s show including a redesigned Shelby GT500. A completely new version of the Ford Taurus is also expected to debut. Ford will be holding press conferences to showcase its new vehicles, but it will not provide lunch for reporters.

General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) will show off entirely new versions of the Chevrolet Equinox crossover SUV as well as all-new versions of the Cadillac SRX crossover and the Buick LaCrosse sedan.

Toyota (TM) is expected to reveal the next-generation Toyota Prius as well as the new Lexus HS 250h sedan, the first Lexus to be available only as a hybrid.

For its part, Chrysler has been tight-lipped about exactly what it will unveil in Detroit next week, but the automaker promises it will reveal something surprising.

The media, affected by reduced ad spending, is also cutting back. Outlets will send fewer reporters to Detroit, said Sam Locricchio, a spokesman for John Bailey & Associates, the public relations firm that handles press access for the show.

“I think the theme for this year’s show is efficiency, efficiency, efficiency,” he said.

There may be fewer reporters, but because of increased global interest in an industry on the brink, more media outlets will cover the show, Locricchio said. He expects the number of reporters to drop 10% to 5,500 from last year, but he sees almost 50 more publications - most from overseas - covering the show.

Despite the lack of banquets and bars for reporters and lavish performances at car unveilings the show will be just effective when it opens to the general public on January 17, said Lonnie Miller, an industry analyst with R.L. Polk & Co.

“They’ve got to make sure dealers have confidence that new product is coming and they’ve got to draw consumer awareness,” he said.

The public never saw the cattle drives and bars, anyway, he said. In the end, all they ever saw was the cars.

SOURCE: CNNMoney.COM

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