PARIS -(Dow Jones)- Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) said Thursday it plans to scale back production of its Yaris city car at an assembly plant in France in the coming weeks in order to adapt production to waning market demand. A spokeswoman for the company said the plant will be idled for a total of 14 working days at the end of December, in January and in March. Toyota will maintain the plant's three shifts, but may not renew the contracts of some of its 700 temporary personnel, she said. This is a precautionary measure aimed at preventing inventory buildup at a time when European automobile sales are contracting sharply. Toyota's production cutback for the coming weeks is substantially less severe than those planned by other European car makers. Starting Feb. 2 production will be slowed by increasing the assembly time per vehicle to 80 seconds from 64 seconds, the spokeswoman said. Toyota sold 210,865 Yaris in Europe over the first 10 months of this year, 6% fewer than in the same 2007 period. The plant at Valenciennes, in northern France, resumed operations Thursday after being idled for a week due to a strike at a unit of Faurecia SA (12114.FR) which provides it with car seats. Toyota lost production of 2,500 due to the industrial action at its supplier, the spokeswoman said. -By David Pearson, Dow Jones Newswires; +331 4017 1740; david.pearson@dowjones.com Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=jeKC25kMyC6Amc39o%2BYVGQ%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
