In the corona crisis, demand in the automotive industry plummeted. BMW has now presented its quarterly figures - and announced the consequences.
- The carmakers are also feeling the consequences of the Corona crisis * .
- BMW has now released its quarterly figures.
- The Munich-based Dax group is significantly lowering its expectations because of the pandemic * .
Munich - BMW lowers its outlook - and wants to cut jobs . The car manufacturer has significantly reduced its expectations for the current financial year due to the Corona crisis * . Due to falling demand * and worldwide restrictions * as a result of the pandemic * , consolidated earnings before taxes will be significantly below the previous year's level.
The goals should be achieved with a number of employees, which will be slightly below the level of the previous year, said the Dax group . The company will use vacancies through fluctuation to drive personnel restructuring.
BMW in the corona crisis - carmaker publishes quarterly figures
At the end of 2019 the group had almost 134,000 employees based on the old count, based on a new definition around 126,000. So far, CEO Oliver Zipse had planned to have an essentially constant number of employees in the current year.
As with rivals Volkswagen and Daimler, the prospects for business in 2020 are darkening among Munichers. The measures * to contain the corona pandemic in numerous markets continued longer than foreseeable when the forecast was presented in mid-March.
Corona pandemic hits carmaker: BMW boss with bleak forecast
BMW boss Zipse said in Munich: “One thing is clear: the situation remains serious and market forecasts are only possible to a limited extent in the current environment. We gradually ramp up our production depending on the market-specific demand - but we monitor the development with the utmost attention in order to be able to react flexibly. " Zipse continued: "We manage our inventory very closely, because liquidity has absolute priority in this situation."
According to BMW, earnings in the first quarter of this year remained almost stable year-on-year, but this was due to a special effect in the company's balance sheet. Between January and March, the increase was 574 million euros .
This corresponds to a decrease of 2.4 percent compared to the same period in the previous year. However, it must be taken into account that the group had set up a provision of around 1.4 billion euros in the first quarter of 2019 for a possible cartel payment * in the auto division *.
Before car summit in Corona crisis: lobby demands purchase premium
In the middle of March, BMW initially expected a production break of four weeks due to the spread of the lung disease Covid-19 - now it has been around six weeks. In addition, the plants in Europe , South Africa and North America are not yet running at full speed again and it is doubtful whether car buyers will immediately buy cars as they did before the crisis.
The German car lobby is currently drumming with the industry association VDA at the German government for a government purchase premium * in order to push the industry, which is important for Germany, with its many jobs again.
dpa / AFP / frs
* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
