French car maker Renault has reported an operating loss for 2008. It said it would focus on freeing up cash this year to cope with even worse market conditions ahead.
Contributions from firms in which the French company has stakes, notably Japan's Nissan, allowed Renault to hold its head above water and turn a profit of €599m, down 78% on the year.
But the firm's own operating profit slipped to a loss of €117m, compared with a profit of €1.24 billion a year before, amid a dramatic drop in demand following the credit crunch and economic collapse.
Sales were down by 30% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier and 7% for 2008 as a whole. The group foresees the market being even tougher in 2009.
Renault was already planning to reduce its 129,000-strong workforce by 9,000 this year, with around half of the posts being cut in France. Some 6,000 of these will come from voluntary redundancy, the rest from non-replacement of staff.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has agreed to lend Renault €3 billion in exchange for a promise not to shut French plants or dismiss French workers.
'For the moment, that's how we see things, there's no need to do more,' Renault chairman Carlos Ghosn told reporters when asked about job losses. 'Afterwards? That will depend a lot on how the crisis develops.' Renault gave no financial forecasts for the year.
