Under pressure
UK auto industry under siege as Brexit tension escalates
Associated Press
LONDON
Gregory McDonald strides across the spotless factory floor at his company, Goodfish, glowing with pride. He plowed his life savings into the injection-molding equipment that churns out plastic parts for everything from aircraft to sprinkler systems and disposable medical devices. He’s ready to do anything necessary to protect that investment.
Worryingly for McDonald, some 30 percent of the parts ultimately go to carmakers who say they will face a catastrophe if Britain leaves the European Union without an agreement on future trade.
So Goodfish, a 9-year-old company with three plants in England, is preparing to expand in Slovakia, an EU country where Volkswagen, Kia, Peugeot-Citroen and Jaguar Land Rover produce more than 1 million vehicles a year. It’s a pragmatic decision for McDonald, who says he can’t afford to be influenced by sentiment or nationalism.
“There’s too much at stake for me, in owning this business, to just stay within Brexitland,” he said at the plant, surrounded by the smell of molten plastic. “And that’s what I decided to do: set up a business in Slovakia.
McDonald’s decision illustrates the huge pressures facing Britain’s auto industry while the government struggles to negotiate a divorce deal with the EU ahead of Brexit day on March 29. As Prime Minister Theresa May tries to balance competing political interests and hammer out an agreement Parliament will support, people in the car business are making decisions based on production cycles, not politics. At stake are 856,000 jobs, most of them at smaller companies like Goodfish that provide parts and services ultimately destined for the likes of Honda, Nissan and Ford.
Carmakers are being forced to weigh uncertainty about possible tariffs and border checks at a time when the industry faces a wholesale overhaul amid changing consumer habits, concerns about global warming and the shift to electric vehicles.
Investment in Britain’s car industry fell 46 percent last year and is down 80 percent over the past three years, partly because of Brexit, according to industry figures. Production dropped 9.1 percent last year to 1.52 million vehicles. Britain’s carmakers have warned that two-thirds of the country’s global trade could be affected by higher tariffs if the U.K. leaves the EU without an agreement, as Britain also would fall out of free-trade deals the EU had in place with other countries, such as Japan.
“The car industry is at a tipping point,” said David Bailey, an economist at the Aston Business School known for his expertise on Britain’s car industry. “We risk ‘carmaggedon.’”
While businesses from banking to food services have demanded certainty about future trade rules, Britain’s auto industry is particularly vulnerable to Brexit because cars are assembled, not forged in a single place.