(Bloomberg) — Italy’s car industry faces an existential threat if manufacturers led by Stellantis NV don’t reverse a trend of declining production in the country, according to an automotive trade group.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Stellantis’ passenger-vehicle output in Italy slumped 41% in the first nine months of this year, fueling concerns over potential job losses. At least 2,000 people joined protests in Rome on Friday, holding banners and carrying flags.
“Our automotive industry can’t survive if output volumes remain this low,” Roberto Vavassori, the head of the Anfia trade group and an executive at braking supplier Brembo, said in an interview ahead of the demonstrations. “Many car suppliers in Italy are small and are at risk as well.
Stellantis, which owns the Fiat, Maserati and Alfa Romeo brands, is Italy’s biggest automaker by a large margin. It has cited a slump in electric-vehicle demand, increased competition from Chinese manufacturers and high energy costs as reasons for keeping plants such as Mirafiori, which makes the electric Fiat 500, shuttered for weeks.
Chief Executive Officer Carlos Tavares’s push to produce in lower-cost nations led to repeated clashes with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government. Italian auto-industry production is expected to fall to less than 500,000 units this year, from around 750,000 in 2023, according to labor union estimates.
Maurizio Landini, head of the CGIL union that helped organize the demonstration, said Friday that Meloni should call a meeting with Tavares, auto-parts makers and unions to put together an extraordinary investment plan to help the industry.
“We can’t wait any longer,” Landini told reporters on his way to the Piazza del Popolo square in Rome, where the protesters congregated. “The entire European industrial system is at risk.”
Unionists from France and the US — a key Stellantis profit driver — also were expected to join the marches in the Italian capital.
“Our jobs are being moved to Mexico and the theme is common, which is why I am going to Rome,” Brandon Campbell, a United Auto Workers representative, said Thursday in an interview at the Paris car show. “Stellantis is closing factories everywhere.”
(Updates with union leader comment starting in sixth paragraph.)
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
