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Opel cuts thousands of jobs across Germany

Published: 1 Nov 12 15:37 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20121101-45921.html

Thousands of German workers at Opel cars will lose their jobs in another round of cuts announced this week by the car maker's owner General Motors. As many as 2,300 people have already been let go.

"The reduction will be accomplished through voluntary separations, early retirements and natural attrition," General Motors Europe said in a statement, referring to 2,600 job cuts, most of which will affect German workers.

The company lost half a billion dollars in Europe alone in the third quarter, when it produced just 196,000 cars - down from 270,000 in the same quarter last year.

GM is expecting Opel to make losses until at least the middle of the decade, its target for "break-even" results.

But the company also re-affirmed its plan to close its plant in Bochum, western Germany in 2016, once the Zafira van ends production.

The company is also drastically reducing its inventory to cut costs. This effort includes a 100,000-unit reduction in the number of cars in its inventory since February, with an additional 20,000 reduction planned by the end of the year.

Despite the depressing figures, GM vice chairman Steve Girsky remained upbeat. "We have an aggressive, multi-billion dollar product plan that will deliver 23 new models and 13 new engines though 2016," he said in the statement.

"Many of Opel/Vauxhall’s near-term launches are in entirely new segments, including the Mokka and ADAM this year, and the Cascada next year."

The Local/DAPD/bk

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

16:15 November 1, 2012 by Englishted
Sad news , these austerity measures are really helping the markets to get a foot on the ladder and then go downwards.
17:10 November 1, 2012 by smart2012
Sorry guys, thanks Frau Verkel :)
20:21 November 1, 2012 by IchBinKönig
The Euro is still a brilliant notion.

Time for German Taxpayer to send Greeks money to buy Opels. Another Brilliant and sustainable notion! Thanks Smart! :D
21:57 November 1, 2012 by Berlin fuer alles
The ever decreasing circle gets even smaller. When will Dr. Merkyl and Mr. Hyde stop? Maybe when catches up with her and bites her on the ass.
07:26 November 7, 2012 by honeybeee
In this harsh economical market environment , someone is sad and someone is happy, just being heard Schaeffler ag is not only expanding factories in German but also they are going on extending factories and having more employees in Hungary , Schaeffler is really doing great at such hard economical situation worldwide now !
05:44 December 15, 2012 by the Anonymous Designer
For decades General Motors and even American Auto Workers have been subsidizing Opel operations since Opel has seldom shown a profit. Opel has been a consistant drain on American domestic profits with very few years as exception. It's kind of ironic to hear complaints about German taxpayers subsidizing the Greeks.
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