Sumitomo Electric Bordnetze fires 600 in Romania after closing down entire plant in Bulgaria last September

Sumitomo Electric Bordnetze, a cable manufacturer for the automotive industry, will lay off 676 of its 1,712 employees at its factory in southern Romania (Drobeta Turnu Severin), according to the regional labor bureau AJOFM quoted by Economica.

The move is in line with the group's shrinking workforce in Romania and Bulgaria, where it closed a factory this year. The group also operates a factory in Moldova, at Orhei, where it employs 3,500.

SEBN has three factories in Romania at Caransebeş (Caraş Severin County), Drobeta Turnu Severin (Mehedinţi County) and Târgu-Jiu (Gorj County). The three employed an average number of 5,604 in 2023 (latest consolidated data available), down by 709 people compared to 2022. The group's total workforce in Romania has been continuously decreasing since 2021.

In Bulgaria, SEBN said last September that it was launching "a plan to reorganize its activities" for the following two years, which involves the transfer of manufacturing operations to the Republic of Moldova and Romania and the employment reduction by over 1,000 out of a total of 1,950 including by shutting down one of its two plants.

The deal marks the second significant development in Drobeta Turnu Severin's industrial sector in recent weeks, following the takeover of the insolvent tire factory Euro Tires Manufacturing by Yokohama Rubber for EUR 32 million.

(Photo:Andrii Yalanskyi | Dreamstime.com)