140 jobs lost

Panasonic closes its printed circuit board plant in Enns

Panasonic is struggling with declining sales (here the headquarters in Tokyo) - 140 employees in Upper Austria are now feeling the effects.(Bild: AFP/TORU YAMANAKA)

25 years after taking over the plant, Panasonic plans to close its printed circuit board plant in Ennshafen (Upper Austria) at the end of December. According to media reports, around 140 employees will be affected.

The site in Ennshafen produces base material for printed circuit boards used in electrical appliances. This site was Panasonic's only one outside Asia. Production is expected to continue as normal until December.

Market share has recently shrunk significantly
One of the reasons for the closure, as a company spokeswoman is quoted by the newspaper "OÖN": "Europe's market share in the production of this type of component has shrunk from around 20 percent to two percent in the last 20 years."

The next bad news: AMS boss Iris Schmidt in Upper Austria has even more work to do(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Markus Wenzel (2))

Closure only a matter of time for employees
After the closure, the Enns site is to be sold. Panasonic employs 228,000 people worldwide, around 11,000 of them in Europe.

The company wants to find a socially acceptable solution for the employees in Ennshafen together with the works council. According to one employee, nothing had been invested in the plant for some time and the closure was only a matter of time.