Affected by the new crown epidemic, the German auto industry is experiencing its worst crisis in decades. According to data released by the German Institute of Economics a few days ago, although the automobile industry is still the core of the German economy, the role of the German automobile industry as an engine to promote economic development no longer exists.
Affected by the epidemic, the global supply chain was broken, and German car production remained stagnant until April this year. During this period, large car companies can also choose to reorganize or switch to electric car production, while traditional small car manufacturers obviously do not have much choice and are more affected.
The epidemic has led to sluggish demand in the automotive market, and the automotive industry has been recovering slowly. At the same time, considering the transformation of fuel vehicles to electrification and other factors, the auto industry is also facing pressure to invest in new technologies.
At present, the German automotive industry directly employs approximately 800,000 employees. Together with upstream and downstream suppliers such as electrical engineering and metal production, the total number of employees can reach 936,000. However, since the epidemic, nearly 60% of employees in the automotive industry have been engaged in short-term jobs and face the risk of a large number of layoffs in the future. The German “Auto Week” quoted experts’ data to predict that this year, the German auto industry may lay off 100,000 employees.
According to data released by the German Automobile Manufacturers Association, German automobile production in August fell by about one-third year-on-year. It is expected that the overall German automobile production will fall by 25% this year.
Major German automakers also suffered heavy losses due to the epidemic. Volkswagen, BMW, Daimler and other companies announced their financial reports, showing a significant decline in performance in the first half of this year, with substantial losses.
What makes the auto industry feel helpless is that it may not be easy to get government support. According to the German “Business Daily” report, in a video conference held by Chancellor Merkel and auto industry leaders, the opposition to the use of subsidies and other financial means to help the auto industry prevailed.
Before the outbreak of the epidemic, the German economy, which was export-oriented and auto and machinery manufacturing as its pillar industries, was already in fatigue. The global epidemic caused economic activities to “shut down” in a short period of time, and both ends of supply and demand were “frozen”. , Making the German automobile industry worse. “Auto Weekly” predicts that the auto industry may take 10 years to recover.
The abstract of the above article comes from: Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 18. “Economic Information Daily” published a report written by Qin Tianhong on the 18th “German Auto Industry Is Facing the Risk of “Stall”.
