Adam Opel GmbH confirms it will end production at its Astra assembly plant in Antwerp, Belgium, in the next few months and close the facility by the middle of the year. CEO Nick Reilly says the company does not plan to shut down any other plants in Europe.

The closure will eliminate 2,600 jobs at the plant and, according to one estimate, about as many more supplier jobs. The plant’s union has been protesting the move by blocking new cars from leaving the factory.

Hints that Opel would close the 85-year-old Antwerp facility as part of its plan to cut capacity by 20% began to surface nearly a year ago.

Reilly reiterates that Opel aims to eliminate 8,300 jobs in Europe, including about 4,000 in Germany. He says the Antwerp closure is necessary because car sales in western Europe this year will be about 4 million units below their peak in 2007 and may never return to that level again. The result, he says, is “significant overcapacity in general and at Opel in particular.”

Reilly notes that closing Antwerp is only part of Opel’s restructuring plan, which is expected to be finalized next month. He says the company also plans capacity reductions, jobs cuts and adjustments to labor costs.

CEO Sergio Marchionne says Fiat SpA will “be okay” even if the Italian government decides not to continue sales incentives.

Italy’s program to pay consumers €1,500 for scrapping an old car expired last month. Media reports suggest the government will decide this month to relaunch the scheme at a lower rate.

Last week Marchionne predicted that car sales in Italy could fall 21% this year without incentives. He suggested the government phase out the program gradually over two years.

Last year, scrappage plans in Europe’s five largest markets helped boost Fiat’s sales in the 28-member region by 6.3% to 1.3 million units—more than three times the rate of growth for the industry overall. The incentives have been especially effective for companies such as Fiat whose lineup is dominated by fuel-efficient small cars.

As expected, the European Central Bank said yesterday it will maintain interest rates at their current record low 1%. The bank cautions that the EU’s economic recovery is “subject to uncertainty” and “likely to be uneven.”

The ECB lowered the prime lending rate to 1% nine months ago. It estimated in December that the region’s gross domestic product will expand by less than 1% this year and 1.2% in 2011.

The bank notes that Europe’s inflation expanded to an annualized 0.9% in December from 0.5% in November. It attributes the increase to rising energy prices but predicts inflation will remain at about 1% in the near term, well below its target rate of 2%.

Sweden’s enterprise ministry tells Dagens Industri that negotiations by Ford Motor Co. to sell its Volvo Cars unit to China’s Zhenjiang Geely Holding Group are not advancing as smoothly as the two companies have suggested.

“The positive signs given earlier have been exaggerated,” Joran Hagglund tells the newspaper. “Geely is the so-called preferred bidder, but not much more. There are still several outstanding issues.”

Early statements of optimism were driven by Geely’s desire to show progress and Ford’s pressure to complete the deal quickly, Dagens Industri says. But the newspaper, citing unnamed sources, says negotiations over intellectual property rights remain a big hurdle.

Geely reportedly is offering €1.4 billion for Volvo Cars, considerably less than the €6.4 billion that Ford bought the Swedish automaker for in 1999. Ford, which once hoped to sell Volvo by the end of last year, aims to sign a definitive agreement with Geely in March and complete the deal in June. In late December Ford said “all substantive commercial terms relating to the potential sale” had been worked out.

Osamu Suzuki, the CEO of Suzuki Motor Corp., expects Volkswagen AG to eventually try to gain control of the company but says he would resist such an attempt by recommending the companies “continue as we are.”

VW bought 19.9% of Suzuki for €1.7 billion last month, and Suzuki used €770 million of the proceeds to take a 2.5% stake in VW. VW hopes to make use of Suzuki Motor’s expertise in small cars, while the Japanese automaker wants access to VW’s diesel engines and hybrid powertrains.

VW has said it wants to become the world’s largest automaker by 2018. Analysts have suggested the German company eventually will try to gain control of Suzuki.

But Osamu Suzuki tells reporters the alliance between the companies must be that of “equal partners.” He adds that the two companies may share product development and production but will maintain separate sales networks in China.

Fiat SpA intends to combine its Abarth, Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands into a new group, says Automotive News Europe. The newspaper cites anonymous sources who say the new group will be headed by Harald Wester, currently CEO of Abarth and Maserati.

ANE says Sergio Cravero, Alfa’s CEO, will get a new job within Fiat’s automotive operations. Wester’s mission will be to find synergies among the three brands. The newspaper says he also will continue as Fiat Group’s chief technical officer.

Fiat has been mulling the future of its Alfa brand, which Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne says must either become profitable or face extinction. A decision is expected in April, according to the newspaper. Alfa has lost between €200 million and €400 million annually over the past decade, according to ANE.

China’s gross domestic product, which expanded by 9.6% in 2008, grew 8.7% last year. But growth jumped to 10.7% in the fourth quarter, causing some analysts to predict Beijing will raise interest rates to prevent China’s economy from overheating.

Industrial production rose 11% in 2009 compared to 12% in the previous year. But in the fourth quarter, industrial output rose a breathtaking 18%.

Fourth-quarter growth was driven by the government’s aggressive €415 billion stimulus package, subsidies for consumer purchases and easy credit. The real estate market is growing strongly, and exports grew in December after a year-long slump.

But inflation reached 1.9% in December, and producer prices grew by 1.7% last month after 12 consecutive months of decline. BNP Paribas SA’s senior economist in Beijing predicts China’s inflation rate will top 3% in a few months. He tells Bloomberg News the inflation trend is “too worrisome for the government” and will cause tighter economic policy decisions this year.

The World Bank predicts China’s gross domestic product will grow 9% this year, overtaking Japan as the world’s second-largest economy after the U.S. China’s GDP last year was €3.5 trillion.

Volvo Cars predicts that demand in India for cars priced above 2.5 million rupees (€38,000) will triple by 2015.

“There is still a large untapped demand for luxury cars in India,” Paul de Voijs, managing director of Volvo’s India unit, tells Bloomberg News. He says Volvo plans to add a new model in India within six months and a second by early next year.

De Voijs predicts that total car sales in India will reach between 2.5 million and 3 million in five years, with luxury models accounting for 1.5% of the total. Bloomberg estimates that sales jumped 19% to 1.4 million units last year.

The number of people in India with more than €700,000 in financial assets is expected to triple to more than 250,000 by 2018, according to Capgemini SA and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. Per capita income has doubled since 2003, and India’s government expects the country’s gross domestic product to expand by 8% in the fiscal year ending 31 March from 6.7% in the previous fiscal year. India is Asia’s third-largest economy after China and Japan.

Toyota Motor Corp., which launched a recall of 4.3 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles in the U.S. last fall, says it will recall another 2.3 million Toyota brand models for the same issue: accelerator pedals that can stick in a partial or full throttle position.

Toyota says 1.7 million cars involved in the new recall are already part of the previous campaign. The new recall covers most of Toyota’s best-selling models in the American market, including most 2010 model cars, pickup trucks and SUVs.

The earlier recall centered on floormats that could catch the accelerator pedal and prevent it from returning to its idle position. Toyota says the new campaign involves an unrelated condition in which the pedal mechanism could stick without the presence of a floormat. The new recall does not include Lexus or Scion models.