Bands in Ingolstadt stand still: strike in Hungary paralyzes Audi plant

Audi-Produktion in Ingolstadt

Audi

Audi production in Ingolstadt

After days of strike in the Hungarian engine plant Györ can Audi Show stock market chart at the headquarters in Ingolstadt at the beginning of the week do not build cars. On Monday and Tuesday, the bands were completely silent, a company spokesman said on Monday. Several thousand vehicles could not be produced because the engines were missing from Györ.

The Neckarsulm plant is currently not affected; there are enough engines available by the middle of the week. According to the spokesman, what happens next depends on the negotiations in Hungary. Audi plays through different scenarios. “We drive on sight.”

The Audi site in Györ is the largest engine plant in the group and also supplies Volkswagen Show stock market chart, The local workers had entered a week-long strike on Thursday. The union demands an increase in wages of 18 percent and an adjustment to pay in other plants in Eastern and Central Europe. Audi had recently offered an increase of initially 10 percent and another 10 percent in January 2020.

The Ingolstadt have invested since the inauguration of the production site in 1993 almost six billion euros. In Györ 105,000 vehicles and nearly two million engines were produced in 2017. As of December 31, 2017, there were 12,307 employees.

Outage meets Audi in a critical phase

The standout in Hungary hits the German automaker in a critical phase: The sales figures have dropped because the company is in default on the conversion to the WLTP exhaust gas standard and many models can not deliver.

The new Audi boss Bram Schot wants to increase the profits drastically in the next few years. With sales increases and cost reductions, the operating result from 2018 to 2022 by a total of about 15 billion euros grow, said a spokesman. That would be five billion more than the current transformation plan of Schots predecessor Rupert Stadler intended.

CFO Alexander Seitz told the manager magazine: “We have to optimize again.” Without a proper austerity program, Audi’s return on sales would run against the zero line in the coming years. Schot said: “We have to decide faster and risk more.”

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The board members also want to save on personnel, as they no longer occupy vacancies in the future. For employees in Germany, however, continue to apply a job guarantee until 2025, stressed the Audi spokesman.

But the joint electric platform with the VW sister company Porsche reduce the development costs by 30 percent. Even with less profitable engine and country variants can be saved. On the other hand, Audi wants to make more money with more attractive, high-yield models and digital services.

The sale of electric cars should be started up faster. To date, Audi has planned to sell around 800,000 e-vehicles and plug-in hybrids in 2025. “We will do more,” said Seitz.

Audi had achieved a result of 5.1 billion euros before special items in 2017. The year-end balance for 2018 and an outlook will be presented by the car manufacturer on March 14 in Ingolstadt.

mg / rtr, dpa-afx

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