Tier 1 supplier Johnson Controls (JCI, European headquarters: Burscheid / Germany; www.johnsoncontrols.com) is to close 21 plants and facilities in western Europe and North America in 2009. The company announced in September 2008 that it was introducing a cost-saving programme because of a sharp deterioration in the outlook for 2009 for the automotive industry in the two regions – see Plasteurope.com of 09.09.2008. It now anticipates that only 9.3m vehicles will be produced in North America and 16.2m in Europe. Two months ago JCI’s forecasts were for 12.3m and 21.2m vehicles respectively. The company has also lowered its profit forecast for 2009.

JCI said that 200 administrative jobs will be cut in Europe (including positions in customer-specific development centres). Roughly half of the job losses will be at the company’s European headquarters in Burscheid / Germany. Administration accounts for 1,860 of the 31,000 employees in Europe. Additionally, 200 employees will be affected by the closure of development and administration functions in Grefrath / Germany, including material and process development, prototyping and an airbag test centre. The cuts will not have any impact on production of instrument panels and door trims in Grefrath.

Production of overhead systems and tunnel consoles in Ghent / Belgium is also being closed. Capacity and virtually all employees will be transferred to Assenede, 15 km away. Injection moulding of sun visors in Madrid (260 employees) is also being closed and the work will be distributed among the company’s six other sites in Spain. In Austria, JCI will reduce the number of temporary workers at several facilities, including 50 who manufacture seats in Mandling. “Nevertheless, if volumes remain at this level or drop further we will not be able to avoid layoffs," a company spokesperson said.

In parallel with the shutdowns in Europe and North America, JCI recently signed an agreement to establish a joint venture with Guangzhou Automobile Components (GACC, Guangzhou / China; en.gacc.com.cn) to produce interior parts such as instrument panels and trims. The new JV will be called Guangzhou GACC-Johnson Controls Automotive Interior Systems and is scheduled to start manufacturing in 2010 following construction of a production facility in southern China.

GACC is a subsidiary of Guangzhou Automobile Industry Group and has 16 plants and 8,300 employees in China. It produces parts for Dongfeng Nissan and the China-based operations of Honda and Toyota.