Stockholm (Reuters) – Volvo Cars announced on Monday the abolition of 3,000 posts, mainly office jobs, as part of a restructuring announced last month, the Swedish automaker faced with high costs, a slowdown in the demand for electric vehicles and the uncertainty about the impact of customs duties.

The group, mainly detained by the Chinese Geely Holding, unveiled on April 29 a cost reduction program of 18 billion Swedish crowns (1.64 billion euros) including dismissals.

The automaker had 43,500 full -time employees and 3,000 employees of recruitment agencies in the first quarter, according to its results report.

In a press release, Volvo Cars specifies that the deletions will mainly concern posts in its offices in Sweden and will represent approximately 15% of the entire office workforce worldwide.

“The automotive industry is going through a difficult period. To deal with it, we have to improve our cash flow and structurally reduce our costs,” said Managing Director Hakan Samuelsson.

Volvo Cars abandoned its financial forecasts last month, invoking the unpredictability of the markets in a context of decreasing consumer confidence and while the customs duties imposed by Washington against its partners, including the European Union (EU), shake in the world automotive industry.

President Donald Trump threatened on Friday to impose customs duties of 50% on imports from the EU from June 1, but he then returned to this date, restoring a deadline for July 9 to allow talks.

The director general of Volvo Cars had warned on Friday in Reuters that customers would pay a large part of any increase in costs linked to customs duties and that a 50% sample could make it impossible to import into the United States of one of its most affordable cars, the electric vehicle ex30 made in Belgium.

(Written by Anna Ringstrom, Diana Mandia, edited by Augustin Turpin)

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