January 22, 2010
By DAVID JOLLY
PARIS — General Motors announced Thursday its first plant closure in Europe since embarking on a restructuring in the wake of the global economic crisis, singling out its Opel plant in Belgium.
The Antwerp facility, with 2,606 employees, makes up about 5 percent of the Opel/Vauxhall European workforce, G.M. said. Last year, workers there built nearly 89,000 Opel Astra cars.
G.M. said that considering the overcapacity at its Opel and Vauxhall plants in other countries, chiefly Germany and Britain, “winding down the Antwerp plant would be the most logical approach for the company.”
“If confirmed, production would conclude in the next few months,” it said. It did not immediately provide details on the extent of capacity reductions and job cuts, saying it would announce those data “in due time.”
A union official in Antwerp told Reuters that the closure was planned for as early as June and would result in 2,600 job cuts.
Nick Reilly, the Opel chief executive, said in a statement that the decision “was not taken lightly; instead, it is the unfortunate result of the current business reality.”
The company predicts the Western European car market will shrink by 1.5 million vehicles this year from 2009 and nearly 4 million from the 2007 peak. It has been seeking to cut capacity in Europe by 20 percent.
The American automaker had agreed in May to sell a majority stake in Opel to Magna International, a Canadian-Austrian auto parts company, and Sberbank, its Russian partner. In November, G.M. reneged on the deal, saying it would restructure the company itself. G.M. has identified Opel as a linchpin of its global small-car strategy.
In an effort to curry favor with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, from which it needed to receive restructuring aid, General Motors had said it would not close any of its four Opel plants in Germany, making it all but certain that the Antwerp facility would be closed.
G.M. is currently in the process of shutting down its Swedish unit, Saab Automotive, though it said it continues to weigh offers for the business.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/business/global/22opel.html?ref=business
