As General Motors formulates a business plan for its Opel/Vauxhall operations in Europe, the announcement that its Antwerp plant is to be closed comes as no surprise to many in the industry.
Even before the onset of the current demand and capacity crisis that has hit Europe's car manufacturing industry generally, Opel's Antwerp plant appeared to have lost favour inside GM and had seen capacity reductions that made its long-term future questionable.
Antwerp makes the last generation Astra model which is now being replaced, but it lost out in the internal GM Europe competition to be awarded the latest Astra model, which is now going on sale across the region.
Analysts at JD Power Automotive Forecasting point out that Antwerp made fewer than 90,000 cars in 2009 but has the capacity to make 240,000 cars a year.
"A plant capacity utilisation rate of 36% is one of the worst rates in Europe," says JD Power analyst Arthur Maher.
The plant once had an annual build capacity of 380,000 units, but was cut back under GM Europe's 'Project Olympia' cost reduction programme to 240,000. There were plans for a further capacity reduction to 150,000 units a year.
Maher says the plant looked vulnerable pre-crisis.
"With the trimming of the plant's capacity, long-term viability was clearly emerging as an issue. The plant is still making the outgoing Astra because that is still selling in some European markets, but that's a phase-out situation and new product for Antwerp was apparently difficult to find."
He estimates that taking Antwerp out of Opel/Vauxhall's production network will improve its overall rate of capacity utilisation by around five percentage points.
"This is an important step for GM in Europe," he says.
"This measure, combined with a projected recovery in production volume could lift Opel/Vauxhall capacity utilisation towards 70% in 2011, compared with an estimated 53% for GM Europe in 2009."
The big question now: where else might the axe fall?
Dave Leggett
See also: GM confirms Antwerp Opel plant axe
Sectors: Vehicle manufacturers, Vehicle manufacturing
View next/previous articles
Currently reading -
ANALYSIS: Opel Antwerp axe no surprise
21 Jan 2010 -
21 Jan 2010 -
Related company research
Car service and repair trend tracker update 2010
In October 2008, Trend Tracker combined its three studies of the UK market for retail servicing, maintenance and repairs into a single report - The Car Service and Repair Trend Tracker 2008, the most comprehensive research and analysis available on t...
Business Monitor International's Colombia Autos Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, auto associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Col...
Central Asia Autos Report 2010
Business Monitor International's Central Asia Autos Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, auto associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on...
Related articles
JULY MANAGEMENT BRIEFING: The low-CO2 challenge (Part 1)
Despite the slow progress to replace the Kyoto Protocol, auto manufacturers are well aware that they will come under increasing pressure to reduce the CO2 emissions of their models and their manufacturing process. And electric vehicles will not become widespread quickly enough to reduce their exposure to CO2 trading, caps and carbon-based taxation. Part 1 of this three-part just-auto management briefing looks at examples of vehicle manufacturer initiatives
US: GM crash dummy 'retires' to Smithsonian
A General Motors crash test dummy whose 15 years of service included scores of full-vehicle crash tests and a host of special assignments will spend a peaceful retirement in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, the automaker said on Wednesday.
There are currently no comments on this article
Be the first to comment on this article