Germany, here’s how Schaeffler swings the car cuts axe
The "persistent economic weakness", the "structural problems" of the sites and "increasingly intense competition" have pushed Schaeffler, a major supplier of car components, to decide to close at least two European plants, both outside the German borders. Production will instead grow in China and India
The crisis of the German car industry, in addition to being well represented by what is happening in Volkswagen and Bosch , can also be perceived by the recent results of the German Schaeffler, one of the most important suppliers in the sector (with more than 120 thousand employees following the merger with Vitesco Technologies Group AG ), which saw its profits halved in the space of a few months.
SCHAEFFLER'S CUTS PLAN
A success in business which is not too surprising given that the component player had the Wolfsburg company among its main customers, which is currently in full spending review. For this reason, Schaeffler's headquarters had already announced layoffs for around 4,700 people across Europe a few weeks ago. Of these, 2,800 in the ten plants in Germany. The layoff plan should reduce costs by around 290 million euros per year by the end of 2029.
WILL THE CRISIS EXPAND TO ITALY TOO?
Schaeffler has several hubs all over the world, on both sides of the pond, from the USA to China as can be seen here . But above all, numerous companies in Europe and three offices in Italy, in the North West, between Novara and Milan: naturally there is already fear for their fate.
PLANTS IN THE FOCUS
In the last few hours, Schaeffler has announced that the reduction in staff – the size of which has settled at around 3,700 units thanks to internal redeployments – will take place between 2025 and 2027 and will mainly occur through the closure of at least two factories.
For the moment these are hubs outside German territory: the first is Berndorf, in Austria, while the second is in Sheffield, England. The cuts, the company explains, were concentrated in the Bearings & Industrial Solutions division.
THE REORGANIZATION AIMS AT CHINA AND INDIA
In Berndorf, wheel bearings, gearboxes and wheel hub modules were produced mainly for heavy vehicles such as trucks, tractors and construction machinery. Operations will be relocated to other sites across Europe, China and Asia.
The same will happen in Brasov, Romania: the production of bearings will be moved to Asia and that of brass cages to other locations, while consequently, to maintain current rates, the production capacity of other products currently churned out in the German plant in Homburg will be increased and in the Chinese Taoyuan factory.
Part of Berndorf's volumes will also be moved to Kysuce, Slovakia which, according to management, will continue to play a key role in the production of components for engines and chassis for combustion and hybrid vehicles. Deliveries from the English Sheffield factory currently being dismantled and previously active in the production of car clutches will be transferred to Hosur, India.
Finally, the situation of the Kysuce plant in Slovakia, where Schaeffler produces components for all its divisions, is more cryptic. The company makes it known that to optimize production costs it intends to reorganize the personnel structures, without however giving details.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/crisi-schaeffler-auto/ on Mon, 02 Dec 2024 06:43:14 +0000.