Fiat moves spark fears over future of Vauxhall

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Fears for the future of Vauxhall's operations in Britain intensified yesterday amid further claims in Germany that Fiat has a radical plan for closures if it succeeds in taking over GM Europe, the parent of Vauxhall and Germany's Opel.

Although Fiat has said publicly that no car factories in Germany would close, the head of Opel's works council said that Sergio Marchionne, Fiat's chief executive, had told him that manufacturing operations in Britain and Italy and an engine plant in Germany would cease.

The comments by Klaus Franz came as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper claimed to have seen an internal document that outlined ten plant closures between 2011 and 2016.

It said they include the Vauxhall plant at Ellesmere Port on Merseyside, its van factory in Luton, GM's operations in Antwerp, the Kaiserslautern, Ruesselsheim and Bochum engine operations in Germany and those at Aspern in Austria. Two Fiat plants at Pomigliano and Termini Imerese are also said to be earmarked for closure.

Fiat denied the claims in the German report, saying that the information “does not come from Fiat and is not part of any plan prepared by the company”.

However, the carmaker, which is facing growing opposition from European unions over its move on GM Europe, is thought likely to seek at least 10,000 job cuts.

<snip> http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article6229546.ece