The future for the backbone of the German economy is looking bleak. A look at the impacts of climate policy on the German car industry.
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By AR Göhring at EIKE
(Text translated/edited by P. Gosselin)
Not only at Daimler, Volkswagen and others, but elsewhere the working people have to fear for their jobs after Brussels and Berlin have declared war on Germany’s most important industry. Now the automotive supply chain is also being hard hit.
Berlin, Brussels tighten the screws
The value-adding industry has already been badly shaken by the exaggerated, simply senseless corona measures of the Merkel IV government. Now the Brussels EU government (including former German minister Ursula von der Leyen) are tightening the screws even more as they love to ban internal combustion engines completely. The EU has just tightened the rules for limiting CO2 emissions. Not only the well-known car manufacturers are under pressure, but also their suppliers, hardly known by name, such as Mahle from Stuttgart.
Mass job losses
The globally producing parts manufacturer still has around 12,000 employees in Germany (72,000 globally). In the country, 2,000 workers are expected to lose their jobs, globally 7,600, and this despite a partial switch to e-car parts. It’s not enough, says a works council member, because there is no concept for the domestic combustion engine factories to convert over to electrical parts.
E-mobility not economically feasible
Why should there be, one might ask, since hardly anyone is buying e-cars anyway? Significant sales figures can only be achieved through massive tax incentives, but the government cannot keep this up forever. In other words, a complete “transformation” to e-mobility cannot be economically feasible.
It would make sense to downsize existing locations and let them settle for the winter. Only develop and produce burners in climate fanaticism-proof countries like Russia, Mexico and possibly the USA. As soon as Merkel’s energy transition in Germany crashes for all to feel and a rationally acting government comes to the helm again, the locations could be rebuilt and production could be brought back.
Highly skilled workers risk going idle
The problem is that machines and buildings are only a part of the company portfolio. The most important factor of a medium-sized manufacturer, however, is its skilled workforce, whose skills, acquired and honed over decades, are not so easily exported or imported. So Mahle and Co. would have to send their Swabian skilled workers with good programs and a lot of money to a safe foreign country for a few years. Is that possible? With difficulty. Home, mortgage, children, school, friends, family … skilled workers are people.
Mahle is unfortunately not the only supplier who is being needlessly driven out or exiled by the misguided caste of the political media. Well-known companies such tire manufacturer Continental will also have to take massive hits – Continental plans to cut 30,000 jobs worldwide.
For many years to overseas consumers the Stuttgart based auto industry has been a symbol of German engineering excellence, reliability and durability.
The government-induced retirement of internal combustion engine manufacture along with the skilled specialists would be a self-inflicted injury.
I think you’re right. Relocation of part or all of productive industry in Germany might help to restore some sanity there.
By the time they wake up automotive manufacture will be nicely settled in Asia, & the Europeans will not get it back. It will be the Germans looking for some foreign aid, rather than dispensing it to others.
It is all about Merkel appeasing the Greens; a costly mistake both in political and financial terms.
It is even worse than that :
Top 30 Industrial Firms in Germany Lead in Layoffs
Sept. 30 (EIRNS)—The select circle of 30 members of the leading German market index DAX is also leading in terms of announcing major layoffs. Volkswagen will fire 27,000; Continental Tyres 13,000; Lufthansa 11,000; ZF 7,500; MAN Trucks 7,000; BMW 6,000; Bayer 4,500; Schaeffler 4,400; Daimler 4,000, With the exception of Lufthansa and Bayer, these are all companies in the automobile sector. In addition, BMW is not extending contracts with another 10,000 leasing workers. The layoffs also affect the machine-building sector, 40% of whose production goes into the automobile industry: The first half year of 2020 has seen the layoff of 32,000 in this industry.
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About 780,000 jobs depend on the auto-sector.
This is a huge political-economic problem, requiring quite the opposite of “small steps” currently in vogue in Germany.
Have a look here : some in Germany realize the scale of the problem, and propose :
1,5 Milliarden neue produktive Arbeitsplätze:
Deutschlands Rolle beim Aufbau der Weltwirtschaft
https://www.solidaritaet.com/neuesol/2020/41/bueso-heft.htm
“1.5 billion new jobs are needed worldwide, and Germany’s role in this recovery.”
So any “small” idea of trying to “outrun” this by “relocation” is just looking for another hill to die on, not a winning strategy, I would say.
See this item :
Autoindustrie umrüsten:
Magnetbahnen, Traktoren und Krankenwagen für Afrika!
Retool the auto sector for maglev, and the African market. Machine-tool expertise must not be lost, it is the key factor.
In the US GM and others re-tooled for the Apollo program. It is not just “swords to plough-shares” of ancient times.
Ah yes, Maglev in Zimbabve. A riveting thought.
Look again, or should I translate?
Sounds fine in principle. In reality: look at US auto worker numbers and the aerospace workforce. How’d that all work out?
We’ll happily accept those exported German jobs in the Southeast US. The German auto industry and suppliers already have a strong presence here. It’s been a win-win for all — except German workers. But hey: German labor supports Merkel and the Greens, so no can really complain.
As in California here in the US I always say: Give the people what they want and who they vote for. Apparently this is the way “democracies” learn the impact of catastrophically stupid choices — by suffering
[…] Ref.: https://notrickszone.com/2020/10/03/tens-of-thousands-of-automotive-jobs-on-the-brink-climate-policy… […]
These are decisions made by bureaucrats and political types who have never run a business in their lives.
This is the EU doing its bit for the United Nations which, according to former UNFCCC head Christiana Figueres, has embarked on replacing the economic system of the last 150 years. The same woman also once declared that the only way to effectively implement policies to tackle climate change is the “Chinese system” (presumably communism).
[…] Tens Of Thousands Of Automotive Jobs On The Brink, Climate Policy Hammers Once Mighty German Auto In… […]
thanks for the article.