European manufacturers used 80% of their capacity in 2019
- European manufacturers used 80% of their European capacity in 2019, compared to 81% in 2018, 83% in 2017 and 84% in 2016. The decline in European car production inevitably leads to an increase in overcapacity on this continent, given that no manufacturer has decided to close factories, the last having been carried out date back to 2014, with the closure of Bochum (GM) and Genk (Ford). The Dresden plant has been converted into the assembly of the Volkswagen e-Golf.
- Despite this, this 80% utilization rate remains one of the best in the decade, because even if production fell by 1.4% last year, demand and therefore the market remains at a high level if we observes the results recorded over the past fifteen years.
- This 80% utilization rate is also considered by economists to be a rate allowing real profitability of the site, with a workforce made up of two daily teams. A site operating at 50-80% of its capacity is considered unprofitable, and a site operating at less than 50% of its capacity is unprofitable.
- Among European factories working at more than 90% of their capacity in 2019, we observe the presence of several belonging to the Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW groups, but also belonging to the Renault-Nissan, PSA and FCA groups.
- With the drop in German production in 2019, the gap has narrowed a little between the utilization rate of factories of German manufacturers and that of factories of French and Italian manufacturers. However, the FCA group remains the European manufacturer in 2019 with the most overcapacity.
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