Saab cut losses in 2003

According to Saab CEO Peter Augustsson, speaking to a news agency at Detroit this week, Saab's full-year 2003 losses will be considerably lower than in 2002, which were nearly €500 million. The US dollar's depreciation alone cost Saab €166m, according to Augustsson, who did not provide full figures.

2003 volume sales were 5,000 units below target at 130,000, but 10,000 above the 2002 total. Besides recently announced product expansion, further efforts to restore profitability to the GM subsidiary which has lost a cumulative total of about €1.6 billion since GM's takeover in 1990, include possible restructuring in its Swedish manufacturing operations, which Augustsson says are still not competitive in terms of productivity.

GM Europe announced the merger of Saab into its Opel/Vauxhall sales networks late last year.