Marelli, Iveco, Italdesign: car reorganisation involves thousands of workers
Historical companies in the sector alongside smaller ones are at the centre of corporate divestment and reorganisation processes in Italy
The great crisis in the automotive sector, in Italy and in Europe, is also revealed by the number of changes of ownership and new corporate structures that are characterising large groups in the components and engineering sectors. With a reorganisation of the European automotive supply chains that seems to be accelerating. In Italy, at least 23,000 workers are involved in total, from Marelli to the Lear dossier. More than half in the province of Turin alone.
It started in the spring with Marelli (5,900 employees in Italy), with the Chapter eleven procedure that swept the historic Italian brand sold by the FCA Group to the KKR fund in 2019 and now acquired by the group of creditors led by Strategic Valuer Partners, to Iveco (14,000 employees in Italy, 1,500 of them at the head of Iveco Defence), in the process of being sold to the Indians of Tata. Passing through the 1,200 technicians and engineers of Italdesign, the 370 of Lear, the 3,200 of Dana Holding Corporation passed to the Americans of Allison.
If the transfer of Iveco Defence to Leonardo raises few concerns, the arrival of Tata at the helm of one of the historical groups of Italian industry, until yesterday in the Exor galaxy, instead generates many more doubts, so much so that the trade unions have reiterated the need to open a round table at Mimit to raise the issue of Iveco's prosthetics, engine production and engineering skills.
The future of the car engineering asset created by Giorgetto Giugiaro and sold to the Germans of Audi in 2010 could include the American company UST Global, a software and digital technology company that also works in the automotive sector. The game for Italdesign is open, and the decision will have to be taken by the supervisory boards, starting with that of Audi itself, and then by that of Volkswagen, in any case by the end of November. The trade unions are concerned about the sale of the company but also about the possibility of a 20% reduction in staff, should the German manufacturer decide not to sell the asset
Per i dipendenti Marelli, c’è attesa per il piano industriale che dovrà essere presentato dall’assemblea dei creditori, in una fase di mercato difficilissima per il calo dei volumi produttivi in Italia di Stellantis. La vicenda della Lear di Grugliasco, storico produttore di sedili rimasto a secco dopo la perdita della commessa per Maserati, si trascina da anni e da pochi giorni Fipa, la realtà che si è candidata a rilevare l’asset industriale, ha chiarito di voler riassorbire 208 addetti da inserire nella fase di reindustrializzazione - tra le ipotesi quella di produrre quadricicli - portata avanti con capitale cinese. Ad una nuova proprietà cinese (Haoxin) sono andate le Officine Vica, con all’attivo circa 370 addetti.
