Ssangyong Motor to cut 37 pct of workforce

(ATTN: CHANGES headline; UPDATES throughout with restructuring plan; TRIMS)
SEOUL, April 8 (Yonhap) -- Ssangyong Motor Co. said Wednesday it will cut about
2,650 jobs, or 37 percent of its total workforce, in a bid to stay afloat as the
company undergoes court receivership.

Ssangyong, South Korea's smallest automaker now under bankruptcy protection,
notified its labor union of the job-cut plan, a company official said.
The plan marks the first mass layoffs by a South Korean company since the onset
of the global economic crisis in September last year. The move is expected to
meet strong resistance from Ssangyong's 7,100 union employees.
Ssangyong was abandoned by Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC) in January
after the Chinese parent refused to make any major effort to save its affiliate.
If the restructuring program is deemed unviable, creditors of Ssangyong will
liquidate the automaker.
Ssangyong, which has an annual production capacity of 200,000 vehicles, posted a
net loss of 709.7 billion won (US$530.3 million) in 2008 on sales of 2.5 trillion
won, down 20 percent from a year earlier.
In the first three months of this year, Ssangyong's vehicle sales nosedived 76
percent to 6,471 units.
With the bankruptcy protection, SAIC, which still owns a 51-percent stake in
Ssangyong, relinquished its control of the South Korean carmaker.
(END)