MG Rover, Britain's last independent car maker, is to shut down production early at its main Longbridge plant for Christmas, raising new fears about flagging sales.

Rover said Longbridge, near Birmingham, would stop making cars on Wednesday morning for "annual stocktaking" and remain closed until January 5. Company officials said this was perfectly normal.

Rover ceased production for three days last month to match output to sales, which fell 30% in Britain, partly because of a row between unions and management over executive pay and pensions.

A spokeswoman said the fall in UK sales had been in part offset by a 20% rise in mainland Europe in the month. Overall west European sales, including Britain, were down 15% at 7,700.

Rover, which has been selling fewer cars in mainland Europe as it reorganises its dealer network, has seen a 2.2% drop in sales this year to 127,000.

The spokeswoman said this mirrored the broader market where VW has lost 3%, Peugeot Citroën 2%, Ford 4%, General Motors just under 3% and Fiat 10%. Japanese car firms have seen 9% growth and Koreans almost 20%.

Tony Parr, the managing director of AP Smith, a Rover supplier, told the BBC the early closure was fairly worrying and could have a quite significant impact on his company.

His comments came as Automotive Precision Holdings said its trading arm, which makes car components, had gone into administration. The company, which employs 433, said it had experienced trading difficulties and had been in talks to refinance the business but that these had failed. In the first half its pre-tax losses rose to £1.5m on turnover down £2.5m to just under £10m.