EIn the year after the start of the Russian war against Ukraine, the automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler divested itself of its business in Russia. “We sold our Russian activities, but haven’t been able to finalize this yet. You need certain permits for this, which we haven’t received yet,” said CEO Klaus Rosenfeld in an interview with “Welt am Sonntag”. The production facility in Ulyanovsk was the company’s smallest plant in the world. “We have found an acceptable solution for us and the 150 employees,” said Rosenfeld without giving any further details.
Regarding a possible Chinese attack on Taiwan, which would be followed by appropriate sanctions, the manager said that the last few years had shown that large global companies had to deal much more with risk management – even with unexpected events. “We don’t have a final plan in our pockets yet. But we have started to deal intensively with this risk. Anything else would be irresponsible.”
Increased investments in the USA
Rosenfeld also said that he spent a week in the USA with Schaeffler’s main shareholder Georg Schaeffler. One reason for this is the Inflation Reduction Act subsidy package, which is worth billions: “We will definitely use it to invest more in the USA,” said Rosenfeld. The IRA will give more impetus to the issue of sustainability in America. “This not only applies to cars, but also to the industrial sectors in which we operate.”
However, it is not about relocating the existing production to the USA. “But we’re more likely to build the next plants in America. There is a risk that Europe will lose out in this redistribution,” he said. There are also programs of their own in Europe. “The question is what works best,” Rosenfeld said.
In an interview with the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”, Audi boss Markus Duesmann also said that the IRA had made the construction of a US plant for electric cars highly attractive. The IRA program has a total volume of 430 billion dollars and provides, among other things, subsidies and tax breaks for electric cars produced in the USA. There are also restrictions on the use of battery materials aimed at greater independence from Chinese imports.