UNITED States auto parts maker Delphi has suspended work at a factory in Suzhou due to shrinking demand amid the global economic slump, a media report and a staff member said yesterday.

The factory, located to the west of Shanghai, makes compressors for General Motors.

"The sudden and unprecedented decline in (car) sales globally has resulted in our only customer, General Motors North America, announcing plant closures and plant stoppages," the South China Morning Post quoted a Delphi internal document as saying.

"Unfortunately our only customer in 2009 is GMNA, and this has placed the Suzhou compressor plant in a very dangerous position," it said.

A staffer named Zhao at Delphi's Shanghai office confirmed the plant had temporarily halted work on slower demand.