Mitsubishi: from diamonds to dust

Last week’s announcement by Mitsubishi on the closure of their South Australian factory has led to the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union pushing for the company to draft a redundancy package sooner rather than later. 

Spokesperson for the union, John Camillo, says the package needs to be finalised before 1,700 workers become unemployed next month. "We're looking at probably around about a week-and-a-half, two weeks of some hard negotiations with Mitsubishi."
 
Meanwhile, car parts suppliers are bracing themselves for the flow-on effects of the closure. Several companies invested in the manufacture of the 380 sedan, but are now anxious to see a return on investment.
 
Bruce Griffiths, CEO of parts group Futuris Automotive said the short notice of the closure was a concern. "Every supplier in the process that built the 380 was asked to absorb tooling costs, to absorb design costs, to absorb capital equipment costs with an expectation of recovery over the model cycle and the fullness of the life of the project."
 
Mitsubishi had previously stated it would produce the car until 2010 but poor sales have forced its operations to close.