Continental CEO warns staff of possible layoffs, report says

BERLIN -- Continental must save hundreds of millions of euros in costs and will probably have to lay off workers due to a slump in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic, WirtschaftsWoche cited the CEO as saying.

"This will be very painful, but we have no other choice," CEO Elmar Degenhart told staff in an internal video, according to accounts from company insiders reported by the business news weekly.

"At the moment we cannot give any job guarantees. The probability that we will have to talk about forced layoffs is very, very high," WirtschaftsWoche cited Degenhart as saying.

A Continental spokesman declined to comment on the report. Management said at its annual news conference in March that it would consider further cost cuts in light of mid-term market developments, the spokesman said.

The German car industry subsequently suffered a steep slowdown as the viral pandemic reached Europe, causing car sales in the region to collapse by 78 percent in April as governments locked down their economies.

The industry's pleas for state incentives to buy new cars and its calls for special treatment were ignored by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government in a 130 billion euro ($148 billion) stimulus package that instead backed an across-the-board cut in value-added tax.

The stimulus only offered incentives to buy clean-energy cars, but not the gasoline- and diesel-powered models that still make up most of German car production.

According to WirtschaftsWoche, Degenhart told staff that the fiscal stimulus would not help the car industry, a leading exporter and major employer in Europe's largest economy.

"We have given up hope that the stimulus packages are effective and good enough to give a short-term boost to car markets. We cannot expect any help from politicians," he was quoted as saying.

Continental ranks No. 4 on the Automotive Newsvlist of the top 100 global suppliers.