"Critical Time" For Automotive Components Industry
The UK's automotive components industry is at a critical "tipping point" and could vanish by the middle of the decade without urgent action, members of the Welsh Automotive Forum were warned. It wouldn't run down gradually but, like a ship sinking, would suddenly vanish, said Prof. Garel Rhys, chairman of WAF. "In 2008 the automotive manufacturing sector employed more than 163,000 people but two years later it was down to 116,000 – that's a 28 per cent cut and an absolute blood letting," he said speaking at WAF's winter networking dinner.