Fiat's Iveco to close 5 European plants

Italy's Fiat Industrial will close five European plants of its truck subsidiary Iveco before year end to concentrate production at one German site, the firm's director told the Ansa news agency Sunday. According to Alfredo Altavilla, plants in France's Chambery, Austria's Graz and Germany's Weisweill, Goerlitz and Ulm will close. However, the Ulm site is set to be replaced by a centralised production centre. The closures will affect 1,075 employees, said Altavilla, speaking at the launch of Iveco's new Stralis truck. "These are painful closures but they will boost our overall business. We have not however cut our investment," he said. "When the markets recover we will be ready." In May Iveco's subsidiary Camiva announced that it would close a plant in southeastern France. The 171 employees were expected to be deployed. Fiat Industial, Italian auto giant Fiat's non-car business, posted a net profit of 207 million euros ($262 million) for the second quarter of 2012, up 93 percent from its proft for the first three months of the yeaar of 114 million euros ($166 million).