Bosch to cut up to 2,000 jobs in automotive ops

BERLIN: Robert Bosch plans to cut up to 2,000 jobs to reduce costs after sales in October and November slumped by 20 percent, the head of the company's automotive division told German weekly auto motor und sport.

The world's biggest automotive supplier by sales has already shortened working hours for its employees in some factories and now plans to cut hours throughout the automotive division to 30 a week from 35, Bernd Bohr told the magazine in an interview to be published on Thursday.

Bosch also planned to reduce investment in machinery and equipment and postpone some construction projects, he said.

"Until September everything looked good," after which sales dipped, Bohr said. He said he expected sales to deteriorate further in December.

The company said on Friday it would "badly miss" its 2008 targets and expected no growth in 2009 as the global economic downturn hits home.

In the automotive division, which has about 66,000 workers, full-year sales would decline by a single-digit percentage, having gained 5 percent in 2007, Bohr said.

"And we expect that the first quarter of 2009 will be about like the last quarter of 2008," Bohr said, adding the company was optimistic that the market downturn would not last more than a year.