The German sub-supplier to the automotive industry ZF Friedrichshafen AG, which i.a. manufactures gearboxes, has announced that the company will cut 2,100 positions by the end of 2025.
ZF, a major German supplier to the automotive industry, is facing sweeping job cuts that will affect thousands of employees.
Around 2,100 employees will lose their jobs, and a significant part of the redundancies will affect the production facility in Saarbrücken, where up to 1,800 people are expected to be made redundant before the end of 2025.
The company has announced that the layoffs are part of a larger plan that was presented earlier this year.
According to a spokesperson from ZF in Saarbrücken, management has been informed of the cuts and an employee information day is planned by the union representatives in the coming week. The local media , Saarländischer Rundfunk, were the first to report on the many layoffs.
The downsizing plan includes up to 14,000 jobs in Germany over the next four years. At the plant in Saarbrücken, where around 10,000 employees currently produce automatic gearboxes, the largest reduction is expected.
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The facility is one of the few where gearboxes for cars with internal combustion engines, hybrid cars and electric cars are both manufactured. New assembly lines for electric cars have been set up, but a drop in orders has left some of the otherwise brand new lines empty.
– There is a list of factories and facilities that must be closed as soon as possible, Achim Dietrich, chairman of ZF's so-called employees' council, told the newspaper Handelsblatt.
According to ZF's management, which has been advised by McKinsey, more than a third of their 35 production sites in Germany are among the locations that risk having to close.
Although ZF is struggling with economic challenges, the company is still working on future growth opportunities.
However, new investments, such as a planned production plant to shape the car interior of the future, will not benefit Germany. Overall, ZF has already presented a savings plan, which means that the company must find as much as DKK 44 billion within the next five years.
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