BERLIN (Reuters) - French carmaker PSA Group's Opel unit will start short-time work shifts at its German Ruesselsheim plant for six months, it said on Tuesday, as a part of a cost-cutting scheme PSA has implemented for Opel.

"Short work should start this month for six months," an Opel spokesman said, adding that the future of the plant would be secured in the long term with the production of the Opel Astra model from 2021.

PSA bought Opel and its British sister brand Vauxhall from General Motors (NYSE: GM) in 2017 in a $2.6 billion deal, saying it aimed to make Opel profitable by 2020.

The savings from the integration of Opel-Vauxhall contributed to a PSA record profit in the first half of 2019, standing out against profit warnings from peers such as Daimler .

(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; editing by Jason Neely)

Reuters