ST. PETERSBURG, August 11, /ITAR-TASS/. A Ford plant in Vsevolzhsk in the Leningrad region [joint venture of Ford Motor Company and Sollers] on Monday resumes production after a three-week summer holiday.]

The plant will resume its operation in a routine regime, a company spokesman said earlier. In 2014, the plant halted production twice - from April 7 to April 15 and from April 21 to June 8, cut 700 jobs and switched to one-shift working regime over poor consumer activity on the market and the rouble weakening.

However, its managers said the plant would continue preparations to launch the production of upgraded versions of Ford Focus and Ford Mondeo in 2015.

The Ford facility in the Leningrad region was launched in 2002. Its maximum capacity is 125,000 cars a year. Now it employs about 2,000.

According to the Association of European Business, Russian car market in January-July 2014 slumped by 9.9% on the same period last year. As many as 1.41 million cars were sold in 2014. Ford’s sales in this period dropped by 41% to 35,820 cars.