While everyone is flustered by the fact that Suzuki has decided that their subsidary, the American Suzuki Motor Corporation will be filing for Chapter 11 (US bankruptcy laws) regarding its auto business to focus on the longterm growth of its Motorcycles/ATV and Marine divisions, on the other side of the Atlantic, the Japanese manufacturer will be closing down their factory in Gijón, Spain at the end of March of next year.
The Gijón factory was the sole Suzuki production plant in Europe and has been in Spain since 1984, and currently employs 200 people and produces nine different models between motorcycles and scooters, but the company has accumulated losses of more than 30 million euros in the last four years.
The motorcycle market in Spain has fallen 18,3% in the first ten months of the year (-23,3% in the month of October compared to 2011), while the situation in Italy is even worse, -21,7% from January to October 2012.