Germany Considering Ways to Support Vw, Economy Minister Says

FRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany’s government is considering ways to support Volkswagen, German economy minister and vice chancellor Robert Habeck said on Thursday, when asked about the threat of job cuts at the country’s largest carmaker.

Volkswagen said this month it needed to cut costs significantly at its namesake brand in Germany, citing high costs, low productivity and fierce competition.

VW is of central importance to Germany,” Habeck told reporters in the city of Papenburg in Lower Saxony. The minister will visit a VW plant in Emden on Friday.

The economic ministry is considering how to address weak electric-vehicle sales, government sources said.

On Monday, automobile association VDA, union IG Metall, car manufacturers and suppliers will take part in a German car summit, the economic ministry said.

Habeck declined to comment on a report in German monthly “Manager Magazin,” which said that some within the company estimate the group’s German workforce would have to drop by 30,000 jobs over the mid-term, or about 10% of Volkswagen Group’s German workforce. It did not cite sources.

That number, which has been frequently cited regarding potential job cuts at Volkswagen in Germany, “has no basis whatsoever and is simply nonsense”, a spokesperson for the carmaker’s works council said.

Management and unions will start negotiations next week on replacing longstanding wage agreements that Volkswagen cancelled this month following threats to close plants in Germany for the first time.

(Reporting by Emma-Victoria Farr and Markus Wacket; Writing by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Victoria Waldersee, David Gregorio and Rod Nickel)