German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday said she would do everything possible to protect jobs and factories in Germany if automaker Opel is taken over by France’s PSA Group.
“We will do everything politically possible to secure jobs and sites in Germany,” Merkel said at a Berlin press conference.
PSA, the parent company of France’s Peugeot, Citroen and DS, has confirmed it is interested in taking over Opel, the German arm of US giant General Motors Co (GM).
However, the plans have sparked fears in Germany that the potential new owner could cut German jobs that doubled up existing posts in France.
The powerful IG Metall metalworking union and the Opel works council called for “unequivocal recognition and implementation of existing agreements for all Opel/Vauxhall sites, in particular commitments on employment and investments” in a joint statement released on earlier Friday.
PSA’s interest in Opel appeared to catch both the German and French governments by surprise, with German Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy Brigitte Zypries on Tuesday labeling PSA and GM’s lack of communication about the talks “unacceptable.”
Worker representatives “are ready to hold constructive talks in case of a sale of Opel/Vauxhall,” they said in their statement.
However, “our objective must be to seize the existing opportunities to safeguard employment and sites,” Opel works council chairman Wolfgang Schaefer-Klug said.
Vauxhall is the brand used by Opel on its vehicles sold in Britain.
Despite their fears, the worker representatives say they “see opportunities arising from the creation of the second-biggest car manufacturer in Europe” after Germany’s Volkswagen group.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in