Volkswagen, we are told, may have to close down several of its production plants in Germany due to falling profits. Consumers in China and other major markets simply are not buying cars like they once did, so Volkswagen may have no choice but to scale back its operations.
The news comes as Germany reported a slight contraction in second-quarter growth. This points to an imminent recession or worse as Volkswagen tries to overcome its woes by investing in Mexico and the Americas.
The future of production for Volkswagen, a Germany company, appears to be all the way across the Atlantic Ocean.
"VW is considering unprecedented factory closures in Germany in a bid for deeper cutbacks, delivering another blow to Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government," reports indicate.
Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume commented that Germany's economic environment has become "even tougher" as "new players are pushing into Europe."
"Germany as a business location is falling further behind in terms of competitiveness," Blume added ominously. "Any shutdowns would mark the first closures in Germany during the company's 87-year history, setting VW up for a clash with powerful unions."
(Related: This would explain why Europe held a war games food crisis simulation – they know a global economic and food crisis is coming.)
VW in the red
Volkswagen's unionized workers are represented by a council whose chair also commented that things are looking really ugly for the company. Efforts were made to impose cost savings programs, but those all failed to the tune of several billion euros.
"As a result, the executive board is now questioning German plants, the VW in-house collective wage agreements and the job security program running until the end of 2029," said chair Daniela Cavallo, who described the company's latest plans as "an attack on our employment, workplaces, and collective bargaining agreements."
In the second quarter of this year, VW's deliveries to China plummeted by 20 percent. Petrol-powered vehicles in general did not sell so well in the second quarter.
"We do not expect an easy year," a company spokesperson told the media.
Another situation rocking Germany right now is politics. For the first time since 1945, a far-right party, in this case the Populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), won a state election.
"Rising populism is driven by a national government run by weak liberals that have overseen an economy with high inflation, disastrous immigration, and growing skepticism for military aid for Ukraine," one media outlet reported.
"These are all new pressures for Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left government."
News about Volkswagen's woes sent the company's stock price plummeting below the lows it reached during the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) "pandemic." The last time VW's stock price was this low was back in 2011.
Perhaps it was not such a good idea for the West to sabotage Germany's Nord Stream pipelines through which Europe's economic powerhouse was able to purchase cheap natural gas from Russia. The only thing that remains is for the rest of the industrialized economy to collapse, sending Europe, and ultimately the West, into a death spiral.
"Cheap energy was nice while it lasted," a commenter wrote about how what the U.S. and NATO have done could spell the end for industrialized Germany. "'No rival shall develop' U.S. foreign policy got in the way."
"Germany is a vassal state of the U.S.," wrote another. "Then again, the U.S. is a vassal to Israel."
"Berlin must remove their braindead politicians," suggested someone else. "Then Germany will have a competitive industry again."
The deindustrialization of the West continues. Find out more at Collapse.news.
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