Wheels off the UK car industry?
Updated on 04 November 2009
UK car makers have responded to the recession by cutting jobs, reducing working hours and suspending production, but have recieved a boost from the car scrappage scheme.
Here are the latest figures.
Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) vehicle production figures across the UK:
- The number of new cars produced in September in the UK was down 16.1 per cent on the previous year to just 119,616 cars.
- Only 9,716 commercial vehicles were made in September.
- The number of vehicles exported also fell by 20.8 per cent to 129,332.
- Reducing working hours and cutting pay by 10 per cent from 1 April 2009 for one year.
- Cut 200 temporary jobs and opened a voluntary redundancy scheme.
- Cutting one in two shifts at the Burnaston plant in Derbyshire producing the Auris model.
- Suspending production for two weeks in February, a week in March, and again for two weeks in April.
- 850 weekend and agency jobs cut from the the Mini plant in Oxford.
- The Christmas 2008 shutdown was extended by 10 days, and the factory closed for one week in February.
- Around 300 agency staff lost their jobs and the plant a Cowley will also cut production from seven days a week to five.
- Workers at the Swindon plant were told they had to take leave at fixed times in 2009 - one week in February and two weeks in August.
- Cut 1,200 jobs from its Sunderland plant in January 2009.
- One shift on each line was stopped until April.
- The North East plant also had a two-week shutdown late last year.
- However, the company has since created 250 temporary jobs to deal with increased demanded caused by scrappage schemes across Europe, with more temporary staff on four-month contracts at the Sunderland plant from June.
- A series of one-day shutdowns and production cuts last year.
- Cut jobs of 150 agency workers and 300 managers, around 1,000 redundancies planned in total.
- Workers accepted a pay freeze and a four-day week.
- Plans to close one of it's West Midland's factories, but will create 800 jobs at it's Halewood plant on Merseyside.
- Offered nine-month sabbaticals at less than 30 per cent pay to Ellesmere Port staff.
- Extended the annual Christmas 2008 closure from two weeks to 40-days.
- Reduced the working week from 38 to 30 hours at Ellesmere Port and workers could also see a similar reduction in Luton, resulting in pay cuts for workers.
- Fourteen non-production days in January and five in February.
- A negotiated takeover of Vauxhall by Canadian parts firm Magna was scrapped by General Motors in November 2009.
- Introduced extended production break over Christmas 2008.
- Production at Swindon factory suspended for four months until 1 June, an extension from the two months initially planned.
- Workers agreed a three per cent pay cut, lasting for 10 months.
- Managers agreed to having pay reduced by 5 per cent.
- As many as 1,300 workers at Swindon have taken voluntary redundancy, reducing the workforce to 3,400.
- Staff were on a three-day week in October and had a longer Christmas 2008 break.
- The Crewe plant will be closed for seven weeks from the beginning of March.
- The plant is now operating a full working week, but have dropped their night shift, reducing the manufacturing shifts from two to one.
- The firm has cut 450 jobs across the company, the majority of which through voluntary redundancy, and all staff have taken a 10 per cent pay cut between May and December.
- The summer shutdown in August was extended from two to three weeks.
- Extended production break over Christmas 2008.
- Around 600 redundancies have been confirmed with employees now on a three-day week.
- The manufacturing line for Transit vans in Southampton has reduced its output, with non-production resulting in an average four-day working week between January and May.
- The factory is currently closed for three weeks.
- Around 850 jobs are being axed, with around 550 jobs cut at the at the Transit van plant in Southampton.
- The manufacturing plants at Ford Dagenham and Bridgend remain largely unaffected, a spokesman for Ford said.
- In March, Ford announced an average price increase of 3.75 per cent - around £1,000 to the cost of a car.
- In contrast, Rolls Royce have announced it is creating 150 mew jobs by the end of the year to support production of the new model, the Ghost.
Other manufacturers have also announced that they will be cutting costs:
- Tesla Motors, manufacturer of the all-electric Tesla Roadster sports car, has announced that it is to lay off 10 of its 50 workers at Hethel.
- LDV's plant in Birmingham has not built any vehicles since before Christmas 2008. More tahn 800 workers lost their jobs when the Russian-owned vanmaker went into administration in June.
