German auto and industrial supplier Schaeffler plans to cut 3,460 jobs worldwide and close four sites in Germany. The company said 2,660 of the jobs will be eliminated in Germany, and it expects the measures to generate annual savings of €300 million from 2030. The restructuring program is expected to cost €480 million.
Schaeffler said it was responding to persistently challenging conditions in the automotive market, along with comparatively high personnel costs in Germany and organizational complexity. The reductions will affect 16 sites across Europe. In Germany, the company plans to close its plants in Dortmund and Morbach, which make components for combustion engines, as well as its locations in Berlin and Schwalbach. Other sites are also due to be scaled back.
The company is also seeking a pay concession from employees, a proposal that still needs to be negotiated with the union. Schaeffler said management board members would take part. Chief Executive Klaus Rosenfeld described the contribution as the program’s most important element, while the company said the job cuts would have been larger without it.
IG Metall criticized the plans. Thomas Höhn, the union’s representative for Schaeffler, said the company was launching one cost-cutting program after another before the effects of earlier measures had been addressed. He said the approach did not provide a future plan for Germany’s industrial base.
Works council head Uli Schoepplein also questioned the focus on German sites and called for a strategy clarifying which products would be made in Germany and where the company would invest. Höhn and Schoepplein said such a plan should be presented before further savings measures are discussed.
Schaeffler’s latest quarterly revenue was €5.8 billion, slightly below the same period a year earlier. Operating profit fell 7.2% to €245 million. The company said business with car manufacturers was particularly weak; profit in its Powertrain & Chassis division, which includes combustion-engine components, dropped 15%. Its spare-parts business performed better.
Sources: Tagesschau.