Engineering news
Bosch is to shut down its plant in Miskin, near Cardiff, with the loss of 900 jobs, as experts predicted another tough year for automotive suppliers.
The factory, which makes alternators, has had the threat of closure hanging over it for several months after a 45% drop in sales last year because of the slump in the automotive sector.
Stefan Asenkerschbaumer, president of Bosch’s Starter Motors and Generators Division, said: “I deeply regret that we could not find a solution for the Cardiff plant. However… the economic situation leaves me with no other choice.
“Without structural adjustment the long-term commercial future of the whole division is at serious risk.”
Production at Cardiff will now be transferred to Hungary and phased out. Consultations are currently ongoing with unions and staff at the Miskin plant over redundancy packages and the shutdown of the plant.
The news came as an Irish engineering company which makes timing belts for vehicles announced it was to close with the loss of 115 jobs. Londonderry-based Arntz Belting, which was established in 1968, said the economic downturn had made closure inevitable.
Peter Cooke, KPMG Professor of Automotive Industry Management at the University of Buckingham, said the Bosch closure “confirmed his fears” that automotive suppliers would continue to struggle this year.
He said “I fear we will lose others. Last year the automotive industry was hanging on by its fingertips to survive. This year I expect to see more consolidation,”
He said the decision to shift production to Hungary was typical of the way the automotive industry was migrating to Eastern Europe.
He added that plants normally had a lifespan of about ten years, after which they either had to be modified to produce new products or close. He said: “Companies see it as more effective to start a new plant somewhere else rather than introduce wholesale change to an existing operation.”
Bosch entertained the idea of producing a new alternator product at Miskin in 2007, but analysis showed it could not be competitively manufactured there.