BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany’s unlisted automotive supplier Robert Bosch plans to expand an efficiency programme and cut an additional “five-digit number” of jobs, newspaper Handelsblatt cited industry sources as saying on Thursday.
The CEO of Bosch, the world’s biggest auto parts supplier, said earlier this month he expects a continued “fight over every cent” with rivals amid limited demand and growing trade barriers.
At the time he forecast further “structural adjustments”, also guiding for Bosch’s revenues to grow by about 2% in 2025 from the 90.5 billion euros ($106 billion) last year.
Bosch, which last year had about 418,000 employees globally, has scheduled a press conference later on Thursday. It declined to comment on the reported job cuts.
A leading labour representative at the company said late last year that around 8,000-10,000 of its jobs in Germany were at risk.
In a respite for Europe’s car industry, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration said on Wednesday it was implementing the U.S. trade agreement with the European Union, confirming that a lowered 15% duty rate for EU autos and auto parts began on August 1.
Germany’s VDA car industry association, however, said the remaining trade barriers were still a challenge and that the EU should push to improve transatlantic trade conditions further.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger and Ilona Wissenbach, editing by Rachel More)
