The crisis in the automotive sector continues to claim victims: today is the news that Ford has announced its intention to close two plants in the UK in 2013: the Southampton works and the Degenham works, which deal with moulding.
These divestments will result in the cutting of 1.400 jobs, which are added to the 4.300 at the Belgian site in Genk, which the American automotive group will close by the end of 2014 and on which negotiations are still underway with the unions. After these decisions, Ford's assembly capacity in Europe will be reduced by 18%, producing, on the other hand, annual gross savings of between 450 and 550 million dollars.
If Ford cries, surely Volvo isn't laughing either. Volvo Car Corporation has announced that it will reduce production volumes at its Ghent plant in Belgium from 2013 to 59 cars per hour in 54..
According to the note released by the car manufacturer, following the cuts there will be 300 temporary workers whose contracts will not be renewed at the end of the year: "After a positive trend that lasted years - reads the press release - the demand from our customers is declining and we need to rebalance our production”.
