No. 1 auto-parts maker Delphi cutting 6,100 more jobs

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Posted 7:59AM on Thursday, April 18, 2002

DETROIT - Delphi Corp., North America's largest auto parts maker, said Wednesday it will pare 6,100 more jobs even as it announced sharply narrower losses and said it was starting to see results from earlier cuts. The company, a former General Motors Corp. subsidiary, said the cuts amounted to 3 percent of its worldwide work force of about 195,000. Together with earlier cuts, Delphi will have eliminated 17,540 jobs, or about 8 percent of its employees, since beginning to restructure in 2001. The job cuts will occur at more than 25 sites in the United States and Europe. Delphi did not give details but said it does not plan any plant closings. Delphi has 17,850 employees in Ohio. "We continue to take the tough steps to bring our cost structure in line," said Alan Dawes, chief financial officer of the Troy, Mich.-based company. Those cost savings, as well as strong demand by GM -- its largest customer -- helped Delphi boost year-to-year sales for the first time in seven quarters. "It's not exactly a boom here, but it looks like we've seen the bottom here and are coming out," Dawes said. The company reported that its first quarter losses narrowed to $51 million, or 9 cents per share, from $429 million, or 77 cents per share, in the same period last year. Excluding $262 million in pretax restructuring costs, Delphi would have earned $123 million, or 22 cents a share, in the 2002 first quarter. That compares to a loss of $20 million, or a 4 cent loss, on the same basis a year earlier.