ZURICH (Reuters) – Feintool will close one of its sites in Germany and cut its workforce by as many as 200 people due to weakness in demand for electric vehicles and uncertainty over the shift to renewable energy, the Swiss automotive supplier said on Tuesday.
Feintool plans a shake-up of production of rotors and stators for electric motors, and said that its unprofitable site in Sachsenheim near Stuttgart would be closed, with most of the production there moved to its Tokod facility in Hungary.
In its stamping business unit, which specializes in electrolamination stamping, the centres for research and development and toolmaking, as well as automated automotive production, will be pooled in Vaihingen near Sachsenheim.
These changes, which will be subject to consultation of workers’ representatives, would preserve around 250 of 450 jobs currently in Sachsenheim and Vaihingen, Feintool said.
Sachsenheim’s struggles were mainly due to external economic factors and the current conditions in Germany, it said.
Feintool’s plant in Jessen, Saxony-Anhalt, would also be affected by the reorganization to a lesser extent, it said.
Feintool listed political uncertainty over electromobility, the transition to renewable energies, and an economic downturn in the industrial business as factors behind the changes.
(Reporting by Dave Graham and Rachel More)