Bosch to cut 900 jobs at Nuremberg plant
Bosch plans to cut 900 jobs at its plant in Nuremberg, Germany, by the end of 2029, roughly half of the site's workforce. The plant mainly produces components for combustion engines, and IG Metall warns that a closure after 2029 can no longer be ruled out.
A Bosch spokesperson confirmed the figure to Bavarian broadcaster BR. The plant currently employs around 1,700 people, and the cuts are to be carried out in as socially responsible a way as possible. Bosch cites increasing competition and price pressure as well as declining sales in the automotive industry, and says it needs to adapt its structures to the changed market environment.
The plant is almost entirely dependent on parts for combustion engines. Its main product, high-pressure pumps for gasoline direct injection, faces fierce price competition from other Bosch plants inside and outside the EU, according to a press release from IG Metall. The union says Bosch is also demanding a further 15% reduction in personnel costs from the remaining workforce, without any commitment to new products for the site. An agreement ruling out compulsory redundancies at the plant expires on 31 December 2026.
"A massive downsizing of this magnitude is a damning indictment of Robert Bosch, the world’s largest automotive supplier. What the employees need, not massive cost-cutting measures, are investments and the entrepreneurial courage to establish future-oriented products at the Nuremberg site," says Christian Heine of IG Metall Nuremberg.
According to IG Metall, the plant has experience in industrial 3D printing, high-speed metal machining, automation of production lines and special machine building, which the union and the works council see as a basis for securing jobs in the long term.
The cuts come on top of Bosch's previously announced reductions worldwide.
