Germany / Opel: 3,100 Jobs at Risk

General Motors Co. (GM)’s Opel division will stop making cars at its plant in Bochum, Germany, in 2016, threatening 3,100 jobs, as the U.S. automaker seeks to stem European losses during a prolonged vehicle-market contraction.

Opel will end auto production at the factory when the current version of the Zafira minivan is replaced, the unit, based in the Frankfurt suburb of Ruesselsheim, said on its website. The carmaker will look to develop component and distribution operations at Bochum to limit job losses, it said.

The shutdown is the first of a car factory in Germany since World War II.

As of the third quarter of this year, GM’s European division, which also owns the Vauxhall car brand in the U.K., had lost $17.3 billion since 1999. The unit is eliminating 2,600 jobs across the region by the end of this year to reduce spending by $300 million, and has a target of cutting $500 million more in costs from 2013 through 2015, according to plans announced in late October.

Adapted choosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor from

via GM’s Opel to Shut Bochum Factory With 3,100 Jobs at Risk – Businessweek.