"They're very resilient"

How the German Auto Crisis Is Affecting Our Suppliers

Local suppliers export more than 90 percent of their components.(Bild: Andi Schiel)

Six out of ten Austrian auto suppliers export to Germany—consequently, many domestic companies are heavily dependent on the performance of German automakers. There is no magic formula for overcoming the crisis, says industry representative Clemens Zinkl in an interview with “Krone.”

German automakers are in crisis. Leading the way is the VW Group, which plans to cut tens of thousands of jobs and scale back production. This has consequences for the supplier industry, which is particularly strong in Upper Austria. The Hörsching-based auto supplier Polytec, for example, “adjusted its capacity to meet demand,” as the company put it, and closed plants in the United Kingdom and Germany. The result: 800 jobs were cut— as reported by the “Krone.”