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Suzuki announced its decision to close its Gij贸n motorcycle plant
The Japanese multinational Suzuki has announced that on March 31, 2013 it will close its plant in motorcycles in Gijon, whose workers are currently subject to a temporary ERE, and will not, so manufacture in Europe. The decision is “irreversible”, as explained by the CEO in Spain, Masayoshi Ito, and it has been adopted by the owner of the company. Suzuki managers gathered at the headquarters of the Asturian Government with the President of the Principality, Javier Fernández, and the Minister of economy and employment, Graciano Torre, to inform them about the closure.

The factory, which has 28 years, employs 200 workers and has accumulated, according to the multinational, a loss of 30 million euros in four years. It has also lost 70% of its market in Europe. ERE that affects the template ends precisely in the month of March.Despite the closure, Suzuki maintained its commercial activity in Spain with the distribution of high-powered motorcycles manufactured in Southeast Asia, so 30 of the 200 workers will remain in the company.

According to Torre, the directors of the company have insisted that it’s an irrevocable decision for continuing losses from the Spanish subsidiary and that there is no room for negotiation. In fact, the Asturian Government proposed that installations are kept on standby, waiting for the market and the economy recovered, but that this approach was found with a negative rotunda. The management of the company will now negotiate the orderly shutdown of the Gijón plant which currently produces some 10,000 motorcycles per year, while its production capacity is much higher. The Gijón plant produces 125 Burgman models, 150 and 200 cubic inches of displacement who have become “out-of-date by performance and high price”, according to Union representatives that months ago was feared that the company was going to announce the closure of the factory since the new model that was going to occur in Gijón took him Thailand plant. Torre has had an impact in that the manufacture of motorcycles is not precisely an expanding sector and that, therefore, unable to raise the possibility that appears a buyer who take care of these facilities. “Little more can do to support those who are asked,” said the owner of economy and employment after pointing out that multinationals are decided thousands of miles where it will suffer.