Black year for the Italian automotive industry
Italian trade unions called 2024 a black year for the domestic automotive industry.
The European car giant Stellantis, which unites the brands Peugeot, Citroen, Opel, Fiat, Chrysler and Jeep, found itself in a severe crisis due to falling sales.
In order to increase production, the company announced that this year it will invest two billion euros in Italian factories, and six billion will be allocated to supply chains.
All Italian factories of the automobile concern, which was created in 2021 by the merger of the French group PSA and the Italian-American company Fiat Chrysler, ended the year in the red.
Yesterday’s pride of the Italian auto industry, Fiat’s Mirafiori factory in Turin produced almost 70 percent fewer cars last year, slightly less than 26,000 compared to almost 86,000 vehicles in 2023.
According to data collected by Italian trade unions, the last time the Italian automobile industry, now united in the giant Stellantis, produced so few vehicles was in 1956.
A quarter of only ten working days
“We do not hide that 2025 will be difficult. But all Italian factories will continue to operate, and many more,” said Stellantis European Operations Director Jean Phillipe Imparato in mid-December.
Last year, temporary interruptions in production affected all Italian factories, and at Maserati in Modena, for example, they only worked for ten days in the last quarter.
“For now, there are no facts, we only have predictions. The situation in the factories is serious, many workers are waiting,” said union representative Uilma Rocco Palombella.
In 2023, according to the company’s data, Stellantis was the fourth largest car manufacturer in the world by sales – behind Japan’s Toyota, Germany’s Volkswagen and Korea’s Hyundai.
Source: Seebiz
Photo: screenshot, Unsplash
Source: bizlife.rs
