Dortmund, Morbach, Berlin, Schwalbach: The automotive supplier Schaeffler wants to close four German locations and cut thousands of jobs.
Herzogenaurach. The automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler is intensifying its austerity measures by closing locations and cutting several thousand jobs, largely in Germany. The company wants to give up a total of five European locations, four of which are in Germany: in Dortmund, Berlin, Morbach in Rhineland-Palatinate and Schwalbach in Hesse, as Schaeffler announced in Herzogenaurach. Following the austerity programs of recent years, another 3,460 jobs are to be cut, of which 2,660 are in Germany. IG Metall and the group works council sharply criticized the new announcements and accused the company's management of weakening Germany as a location.
The Schaeffler board of directors justifies the further cuts with the automobile crisis in Europe and high costs. In the first nine months of this year, sales fell slightly to 17.5 billion euros. The group was only just in the black with a net profit of eleven million euros. A year ago, Schaeffler reported a loss of 244 million euros. Job cuts and site closures are to be supplemented by a temporary salary waiver for the remaining workforce. This “solidarity contribution” is said to be the most important element of the austerity program. The board wants to forego ten percent of its salary, as CEO Klaus Rosenfeld told RTL/ntv.
The job cuts of recent years are now continuing. Schaeffler took over its competitor Vitesco at the beginning of 2024, with the global number of employees initially increasing from a good 83,000 to 115,000 at the end of 2024. In the same year, the board decided to cut an initial 4,700 jobs on a voluntary basis by 2029, followed a few weeks ago by a partial retirement program with 1,800 planned job cuts. At the end of September, Schaeffler still employed 31,957 people in Germany. Based on this number, the company's figures show that the domestic workforce will shrink by 18 percent - almost a fifth.
“Anyone who always sets up new reduction programs, closes locations and wants to reduce personnel costs is not strengthening Germany as a location, but rather weakening it,” criticized Uli Schoepplein, chairman of the group works council.
Schaeffler is active in four business areas: The largest division is the business with components for engines, transmissions and chassis of both conventional and electric cars. Sales in this area are falling, so the planned job cuts will affect this division to a considerable extent.
But Schaeffler is not isolated in the room. The business depends on the major car manufacturers. The mood in the German auto industry is gloomy. When VW or BMW make savings, the suppliers are often the first to suffer. The car manufacturers then try to reduce the prices for supplied parts or at least refuse price increases.
There is also the special problem of China. The rise of the Chinese auto industry has fundamentally changed the situation of German companies within a decade. In 2015, Chinese companies still played a minor role on the global market; by 2025, manufacturers from the People's Republic had already exported around eight million cars. One target of the export offensive is Europe. This alone means for German companies that the golden times will not return - as many in the industry say. Because the Chinese auto industry will no longer disappear.
German manufacturers first lost large market shares in China because Chinese customers now prefer to buy Chinese electric cars. However, the market shares of German manufacturers are now also eroding in other countries, and there is currently no end to the process in sight. Despite extensive government subsidies, many Chinese car manufacturers are up to their ears in debt after the gigantic investments of the past few years and their production capacities are far from being utilized to capacity.
The result is that Chinese companies not only export cars to the world, but also their cutthroat competition with the corresponding predatory prices. In China, car sales figures have fallen this year, which is increasing export pressure. However, Schaeffler and German industry as a whole are confronted with costs that have risen sharply in recent years.
IG Metall and the group works council are demanding a future concept for the German locations from the Schaeffler board: “Schaeffler presented its ideas today: a detailed reduction concept for Germany and at the same time a global growth strategy for the group,” said Thomas Höhn, the union’s corporate representative for Schaeffler. “What is missing is the connection between the two: a concrete answer to which products and technologies will be developed and manufactured in Germany in the future, where investments will be made and how much employment Schaeffler wants to secure here by 2030.”
