Volvo Cars to slash 3,000 jobs in white-collar cutback

By Marie Mannes and Anna Ringstrom

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Sweden's Volvo Cars will cut 3,000 mostly white-collar jobs as part of a restructuring announced last month as it grapples with high costs, a slowdown in electric vehicle demand and trade uncertainty, it said on Monday.

The layoffs represent around 15% of the company's office staff, with close to three-quarters of job losses expected to occur in Sweden and the rest in the company's global operation, Volvo Cars said in a statement.

With most of its production based in Europe and China, Volvo Cars is more exposed to new U.S. tariffs than many of its European rivals, and has said it could become impossible to export its most affordable cars to the United States.

The group, which is majority-owned by China's Geely Holding, on April 29 unveiled a programme to slash costs by 18 billion Swedish crowns ($1.9 billion) and hit the brakes on investments, warning that redundancies were inevitable.

In the first quarter, the auto maker had 43,500 full-time employees and 3,000 staffing agency personnel, according to its earnings report. White-collar staff make up more than 40% of its workforce.

"The automotive industry is in the middle of a challenging period. To address this, we must improve our cash flow generation and structurally lower our costs," CEO Hakan Samuelsson said.

The group withdrew its financial guidance as it announced its cost cuts last month, pointing to unpredictable markets amid weaker consumer confidence and trade tariffs causing turmoil in the global auto industry.

On Friday U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 50% tariff on imports from the European Union from June 1, but on Monday he backed away from that date, restoring a July 9 deadline to allow for talks between Washington and Brussels.

Volvo Cars' shares were up 3.7% at 1145 GMT on Monday to 18.20 crowns, with most of the rise coming before the layoff announcement. They are still down 24% year-to-date.

($1 = 9.4829 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom and Marie Mannes, editing by Terje Solsvik and Jan Harvey)