Bumper manufacturer closes Belgian plant

French company Plastic Omnium is accelerating the pace of its European bumper production downsizing by closing its fender manufacturing plant in Herentals, Antwerp province, this summer with the loss of 123 jobs, reports Just Auto’s Simon Warburton. The announcement yesterday follows the supplier’s decision in November to end bumper manufacture at its Eisenach-Thuringia plant in Germany with the loss of 200 jobs – prompted by what it angrily called “automakers’ industrial strategies” and “persistent excess production capacity in western Europe”. The component manufacturer says production volumes at the Herentals plant have dropped by more than half since 2007, due to declining car sales in Europe and the reduction of manufacturing capacity in Belgium by automakers. The fuel tank manufacturing unit on the same site will not be affected by the plans. Employee representatives will be consulted about the redundancies and what Plastic Omnium terms the “social implications”, as required by Belgian law. The company previously said it would continue to maintain a presence in Germany with nine production facilities and four development centres employing a total of 1,400 people.