Schaeffler has delivered one of the sharpest restructuring announcements of the year in European automotive. The German parts and industrial supplier has confirmed plans to eliminate 3,460 positions across Europe and close five plants in the region as part of a performance improvement programme. The move marks another blow to a European car industry already fighting weak demand and mounting cost pressure.
Central and Eastern Europe will feel the cuts directly. Hundreds of jobs are set to go in Slovakia, where the car industry is already struggling, and the decision shows how quickly retrenchment at German tier suppliers spreads through the CEE manufacturing belt. For a country whose economy leans heavily on car production, the timing could hardly be worse.
The announcement lands as German automakers face a profit slump amid the intensifying challenge from Chinese electric-vehicle makers. The EU is responding, but financial support on the scale seen in the US or China is structurally difficult to deliver — and Northern and Eastern European member states that lack a strong automotive manufacturing base oppose such aid. That leaves heavily car-dependent economies such as Slovakia with little cushion as the pressure mounts.
Supply chains are adding to the sector's troubles. Stellantis said a missing chip from an unnamed supplier is causing significant disruption to Fiat production in Italy and could last through November and December, having already hit October sales. With single-source components still choking output even as suppliers slash capacity and headcount, European carmaking is under pressure on two fronts at once — and CEE plants, embedded in those same supply networks, are unlikely to escape the squeeze.
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