Opel mulls Citroen C5 production in Germany

Reuters (Berlin) - General Motors' loss-making European unit Opel has offered to build PSA Peugeot Citroen's C5 sedan at Ruesselsheim, Germany, to compensate workers for lost production of the Astra compact, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Saturday, without citing a source.

Production of the C5 at Opel's biggest factory would be designed to make up for plans to pull the Astra from Ruesselsheim and confine manufacturing of the vehicle to plants at Ellesmere Port in Britain and Gliwice in Poland, the newspaper said.

A spokesman for Opel said the company is considering future production strategy, though decisions have not yet been taken. Chief Executive Officer Karl-Friedrich Stracke will brief workers at a staff meeting on Monday about the carmaker's business, he added.

GM CEO Dan Akerson and Opel Chairman Steve Girsky have been pushing Stracke hard to lower the company's costs by shifting production from high-wage countries in western Europe to emerging markets. GM's alliance with Peugeot is one part of the U.S. manufacturer's plan to fix the European division.