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According to Agence France-Presse and other media reports, the German auto parts supplier Zaifu Group announced that it is expected to cut about 11000 to 14000 jobs in Germany by the end of 2028. It is understood that as of July 2024, ZF has a total of about 169000 employees worldwide, including about 54000 in Germany. In other words, the layoffs will account for about 1/4 of the total number of employees in Germany.

According to the report, the layoff is the largest layoff plan in the company's history. As for the reasons for the layoffs, ZF said the layoffs were planned in response to rapid changes in the automotive industry, especially in the electrified sector. The chief executive of ZF said the decision was not easy, but it was a key step in ensuring that the company remained competitive in an increasingly competitive market, arguing that the restructuring would enhance ZF's competitiveness and consolidate its position as one of the world's largest parts suppliers.

It should be noted that this is not the first time that Zaifu Group has laid off staff this year. In February, ZF said it might need to cut 12000 jobs in a worst-case scenario.

According to public data, Zaifu Group is one of the world's top 500 companies in Germany, which was first established in Germany in 1915 and is headquartered in Friedrich Hafen, Baden-W ü rttemberg, Germany. It mainly provides enterprises with comprehensive systematic solutions and products from software to hardware.

In fact, life at ZF is just a microcosm of German car suppliers. With the significant changes in the global auto industry, German auto parts giants have taken more frequent layoffs, and more and more head suppliers have joined the wave of layoffs. In addition to the layoffs announced by Zaifu Group, auto parts suppliers including Schaeffler, Valeo and Bosch have also announced layoffs before. Among them, the German auto parts manufacturer Bosch Group announced in January that it plans to cut 1200 jobs by 2026, of which 950 are in Germany, mainly in the Intelligent driving and Control Systems Division (XC). Then in February, Bosch, the world's largest car parts supplier, announced that its software and electronics divisions would cut up to 1200 jobs by the end of 2026 because of high inflation and rising raw materials and energy costs.

According to the latest figures released by Falkensteg, a German consultancy, 20 German auto parts suppliers with annual revenues of more than 10 million euros filed for bankruptcy in the first half of 2024, up 60 per cent from a year earlier. In addition, in the business sector, including the automobile industry, a total of 162 companies with annual revenues of more than 10 million euros filed for bankruptcy in Germany in the first half of the year, of which automobile supply chain and machinery manufacturing were one of the worst-hit areas.

In the automotive industry, reducing costs and improving efficiency is the goal of global automakers or auto parts suppliers, especially in the context of the transformation of new energy vehicles, layoffs have become an effective measure to "cut costs and improve efficiency". At present, all large parts suppliers need to face the transformation of electrification and intelligence, and the cost of this change is very high, and industry insiders predict that the number of bankruptcy of German car suppliers may further increase in the second half of the year.

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