Nissan's global shake-up puts thousands of UK auto jobs at risk
Japanese car-maker Nissan announces major cut-backs affecting 9‚000 jobs worldwide and 20% production reduction. UKʼs Sunderland plant faces uncertainty as company deals with tough market conditions
In a market-shaking move‚ Makoto Uchida‚ Nissanʼs top-exec announced a world-wide restructure that puts thousands of UK jobs on shaky ground (the company currently employs round 6k workers at its Sunderland plant)
The car-maker plans to cut-back production by 20% and remove 9k positions globally - thats about 7% of its 133k workforce. The companys financial health isnt looking good: profit forecast dropped from 500bn to 150bn yen; plus Uchida decided to give up half his monthly pay starting this month
These turnaround measures do not imply that the company is shrinking . We [have] an aim to enhance the competitiveness of our products‚ which are fundamental to our success
The Sunderland facility - which makes Qashqai Juke SUVs and electric Leaf models - faces an unclear future as the company hasnt specified where cuts will happen. The shake-up comes as Japanese car-makers struggle in China; where local companies like BYD (which passed Tesla as top EV maker last year) are taking over the market
- Volkswagen
- BMW
- Mercedes
These euro car-makers also reported falling Chinese sales lately. Nissan says its focusing on making a leaner more-flexible business that can adapt to market changes quick
