(Paris) Factory closures, social plans, drop in wages: the automotive sector is experiencing a global slowdown, and announcements of job cuts, among manufacturers and equipment suppliers, are increasing.
Published yesterday at 12:52 p.m.
Hugo RUAUD
Agence France-Presse
The slowdown in the market and new competition from Asian brands, particularly Chinese ones, is disrupting the economic balance of historic European, Japanese and American heavyweights, forced to slow down their production, lower their costs and increase their productivity.
Manufacturers in turmoil
Japanese manufacturer Nissan indicated on Thursday that it would cut 9,000 jobs from its global workforce and cut its production capacities.
Read the article “Nissan cuts 9,000 jobs and reduces production capacity”
Also on Thursday, the French-Italian-American giant with multiple brands Stellantis, whose sales fell by more than 27% in the third quarter, announced that it would lay off 1,100 people at its Jeep factory in Ohio, in the United States.
Since the merger between Peugeot-Citroën and Fiat Chrysler in 2021, Stellantis’ workforce in Italy has been reduced by more than 10,000 people, to around 40,000.
In France, in the factories of Poissy, Douvrin and Caen, days of partial unemployment have increased since the start of the year.
The French Stellantis factories will be determined on their fate in mid-November, when they will receive their three-year production plan, but some have already reduced their workforce, such as at the end of October in Rennes (250 temporary positions eliminated) or in Mulhouse at the beginning of January (600).
Flagship in crisis of the German economy, the manufacturer Volkswagen is preparing a savings plan unprecedented in its history which opens the door to factory closures in Germany as well as outright layoffs of employees.
Before getting there, the leading European automobile group announced at the end of October a plan to reduce salaries by 10% and a review of the bonus system in order to restore part of its competitiveness.
No plans for factory closures have so far been formally mentioned by Volkswagen to the press, but the group “maintains its threat of factory closures and cuts [radicales] jobs,” says the IG Metall union.
Last April, the American manufacturer Tesla, a specialist in electric means of transport, announced internally the elimination of more than 10% of its global workforce, or some 14,000 people.
Equipment manufacturers down
In turn, the equipment suppliers of automobile manufacturers are in turn suffering from the slowdown in the sector.
On Tuesday, the French tire manufacturer Michelin announced the closure before 2026 of its factories in Cholet and Vannes, in the west of France, where 1,254 employees work.
The closure has become “inevitable” due to Asian competition in van and heavy goods vehicle tires, the sectors of the two factories, but also the “deterioration of European competitiveness”, indicated the management of the French group. .
Its German alter ego Continental also announced at the beginning of 2024 the elimination of 7,150 jobs worldwide, as part of a savings plan aimed at increasing its competitiveness for the delicate transition to electric mobility.
The German automobile supplier Schaeffler, a specialist in bearings for the automobile industry, announced on Tuesday the loss of 4,700 jobs in Europe, one month after its merger with the equipment supplier Vitesco, a transmission manufacturer.
Schaeffler is not the only one to downsize in Germany: Bosch has announced several rounds of job cuts around the world in recent months, affecting some 7,000 jobs in total, with German sites expected to be the most affected.
The equipment manufacturer ZF, for its part, announced that it wanted to cut up to a quarter of its workforce in the country, or 14,000 positions, citing the challenge of competitiveness.
Concerning batteries, the Swedish Northvolt announced at the end of September that it was going to cut 1,600 jobs out of 6,500 and freeze the development of its main production site, at Skelleftea in the north of the country, to adapt to a tense financial situation.
In the first half of 2024, 32,000 job cuts in Europe were announced, more than during the COVID-19 pandemic, among suppliers to automobile manufacturers, which employ 1.7 million employees on the Old Continent.
