In a statement SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt said: "The United Kingdom vehicle production figures demonstrate both the strength of the sector and the fact that there was a dramatic fall in demand at the end of 2008". "Facilities in the UK are globally competitive with high productivity levels and hugely attractive model line ups." "The SMMT has been in close discussion with the UK government on the urgent need to improve access to credit and kick-start demand in the market. “This has taken place in order to sustain valuable industrial capability during this exceptionally difficult period."
Great Britain exports about 75% of the cars it manufactures but the industry has been struggling lately. Many car manufacturer companies are having difficulties. Aston Martin has had to lay off 600 staff, General Motors has had to have a 40 day extended closure over Christmas, Jaguar Land Rover is planning 450 redundancies and has had a series of one day shut downs, and Mini extended its Christmas shutdown by 10 days and made 300 staff redundant.
Only last week Japanese car manufacturer Honda announced its plans to extend the halt in production at its plant in Swindon, Wiltshire, for two months, on top of its already announced shut down during the months of February and March 2009. Other Japanese car companies which are having problems are Toyota which has had to suspend one of the night car manufacturing shifts and Nissan which laid off 1,200 people and had to shut down for two weeks at the end of 2008.