The future of the site has been uncertain for a year.
(Photo: REUTERS)
Dusseldorf The US car giant Ford is apparently about to sell its German plant in Saarlouis. “We are currently in advanced negotiations with investors with the potential to create around 2,500 jobs,” the company said on Thursday. The aim is to “redesign the location and create future employment opportunities”.
Around 4,500 people are currently employed at Ford in Saarland. A works meeting has been taking place on site since Thursday afternoon, at which the employees are to receive an update on the future of the location from Germany boss Martin Sander.
Ford’s goal is to reach an agreement with a buyer “as quickly as possible” – a so-called letter of intent. This would be the basis for further discussions and to give the employees a perspective. One no longer speaks of months until a decision is announced, said a person familiar with the status of the negotiations. A letter of intent is a written preliminary agreement that is not legally binding.
BYD as buyer of the Ford plant in Saarlouis?
Ford did not disclose details of an investor. From circles that are close to the negotiations, however, it is reported that the election has captivated to one or two candidates. One person said that none of the shortlisted buyers came from Europe. Overall, Ford is said to have spoken to about 30 investors.
According to information from the Handelsblatt, one of the candidates with whom Ford is said to have recently held talks is the Chinese car manufacturer BYD. However, the company should not be the current favorite.
BYD could meet Ford’s desire to continue operating the plant as a manufacturing facility for the auto industry. Ford always emphasizes the good infrastructure of the location for industry and the high level of qualification of the workforce.
The compact car Ford Focus will be produced in the plant until 2025.
(Photo: imago/Becker&Bredel)
On the other hand, BYD is considered a direct rival of volume manufacturers such as Ford or Volkswagen. The company is currently expanding – also in Europe. At a recent financial meeting in the US, Ford CEO Jim Farley said his main competition was “not Toyota or General Motors,” but Chinese automakers.
>>Read also: BYD dares up to ten percent electric car market share in Germany
Factory outlets could entail political friction
According to the economic service “Bloomberg”, in addition to BYD, a group of smaller Chinese car manufacturers are also said to be interested in the Ford location in Saarland. A deal with a Chinese investor is likely to bring Berlin onto the scene, as the federal government around Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is currently doing a lot to reduce economic dependence on the People’s Republic and thus make supply chains in this country more resilient. Another scenario under discussion is a battery recycling plant on the site.
The Focus compact model is currently being built at the Ford plant in Saarlouis. Production will be phased out in 2025, as Ford announced in the summer of 2022. A plant in Valencia, Spain, was awarded the contract for a new electric car platform. Since then, the future of Ford employees in Saarland has been uncertain.
In the course of the transition to electromobility, the US carmaker is massively reducing its presence in Europe. Up to 3,800 jobs at Ford on the continent are to be lost in the next three years, most of them in Germany and Great Britain.
Ford wants to get 1000 jobs in Saarland
For the Saarlouis site, Ford has made a commitment to maintain around 1,000 jobs. However, this promise would become obsolete as soon as the work as a whole changed hands. The employees in Saarlouis have also been offered the opportunity to move to the Cologne location, where Ford recently inaugurated its “Electric Vehicle Center”. So far, several hundred employees are said to have followed this call, according to the company.
A sale to a Chinese investor could bring Berlin onto the scene.
(Photo: IMAGO/Political Moments)
In addition to an anchor investor who will continue to operate the site as a production facility, the option of a multi-purpose innovation park is also on the table. However, Ford internally sees this as plan B for the location.
The works council says that a solution must be presented to the employees quickly after a year of uncertainty. The IG Metall trade union is demanding a social plan in the event that no follow-up solution is found for the plant. It is about severance payments of at least 100,000 euros plus surcharges. As expected, negotiations on a social wage agreement between management and the union initially failed on Monday.
More: Ford is turning the Cologne site into a purely electric car factory