Volvo will cut car production in Sweden around 10 percent and axe 200-300 jobs due to slower-than-expected sales according to a union spokesman.

Michael Blohm of the IG Metall blue collar union at Volvo's Torslanda plant in the western city of Gothenburg said management had told staff a slowdown in sales meant production would have to be reduced.

"They want to go down from 57 cars an hour to 52 or 50," said Blohm. That would also mean that between 200 and 300 people working at the plant from a recruitment company would not have their contracts extended, he said.

"They [management] said before the summer break that sales had gone down. When we came back, they said they had gone down further," he said, adding that about 2,000 staff work on the production line at Torslanda.

He said the plant had already been closed for four days before the annual mid-year break, which also had the effect of reducing production.

Volvo, which was bought by China's Zhejiang Geely from Ford Motor Co. in 2010 for $1.8 billion, has said it aims to increase annual sales by 2020 to 800,000 from just over 400,000 cars at present. This goal would include selling 200,000 cars in China, a leap from the 47,000 sold there in 2011.

No comment has being forthcoming from Volvo on the cuts.
Volvo car sales in the EU and EFTA countries fell 8 percent in the January-June period to 126,826.