Having not made, on Wednesday (28 March) any specific post-supervisory board meeting announcements on the future of Bochum and Ellesmere Port, General Motors’ Opel on Thursday was reported to be considering the sale of its Eisenach plant in Germany where it manufactures the Corsa subcompact and was due to begin building the Junior later this year, according to Handelsblatt.
The business daily cited a person familiar with the situation as saying it was conceivable that an investor for the plant could be sought, Reuters reported.
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Opel would not comment on the reports.
On Wednesday, Opel avoided conflict with the unions on its board, preferring to return to the negotiating table rather than ram through thousands of job cuts in Britain and Germany.
One person who attended a supervisory board meeting on Wednesday told Reuters that chief executive Karl-Friedrich Stracke had submitted only a “very rough” plan, which included a variety of options for consideration, and had not suggested closing specific plants.
Under a restructuring concept dubbed “Viability Plan 6” drafted during the post-Lehman crisis but never implemented, Opel management proposed the simultaneous closure of the Antwerp, Belgium and Bochum plants and the sale of Eisenach. Antwerp has since been axed.
Eisenach, located in what was East Germany, recently cut production by slashing working hours to as little as 30 per week from 38 until the summer when pre-launch production begins, slowly, of the new Junior small car.
Opel spent EUR190m (US$252m) last year to expand the plant, the biggest investment since production began 20 years ago, to increase the number of components built in-house, Reuters said.
