James Mills is a web developer in the North East of England and founder of Refresh Teesside »
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Deloitte, which has 23 offices across the UK including Newcastle, is among the country's leading professional services firms » 
ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » The biggest surprise about Nissan's announcement tonight that it is cutting production at its Sunderland plant in the run up to Christmas is the timing.
It was only on Friday last week that The Journal revealed that the company planned to halt production on its Qashqai lines for the next three Fridays.
Yet less than a week later, the company has decided that such action is not sufficient and, instead, the entire plant will be shutdown for the equivalent of six days before the planned winter close period.
It is hard to believe that demand has dropped off a cliff during the last couple of days to such an extent that it has necessitated such a significant change of policy.
Which is why questions must be asked about what other factors may be behind the move - in particular the relationship with suppliers who are no doubt feeling the strain at the moment.
Time may tell as to what forced the management to tell the entire Sunderland workforce that they should head home for the day early this afternoon.
The next few days, which will seem eerily quiet around the Washington area, may hold some answers.
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