MOSCOW, August 4 (RIA Novosti) - The Nissan St. Petersburg plant, which opened in early June, has closed down operations until August 16, the company said on Tuesday.

The factory began its "summer holidays" on Monday.

It said the assembly line would be restarted on August 17 and that the "vacation" would be used to install and fine-tune new equipment.

As consumer demand for cars has plummeted, the majority of automakers in Russia are halting production. AvtoVAZ and KamAZ suspended operations on August 1, and Renault and Toyota Russia plants did so on August 3.

Nissan has said it will produce 50,000 cars a year in Russia - initially the Teana model and later the Nissan X-Trail.