Nissan closes Sunderland engine cylinder plant as Renault contract ends | Business newsletter

Japanese carmaker Nissan will close its engine cylinder plant in the UK in 2024 when the contract with its sole customer expires.

Sky News has learned that Nissan decided to close the large Sunderland plant area, which produces cylinder heads for Renault internal combustion engines.

The decision will not result in any job losses, with all 250 staff working in the area to be redeployed elsewhere in Sunderland, affected workers were notified on Monday morning. Three.

Nissan’s move will end more than 30 years of cylinder production at Sunderland and underscore the industry’s growing shift to electric vehicle production.

An insider said the decision was made for “business efficiency” reasons.

The contract with Renault, with which Nissan has a broader strategic alliance, is expected to expire on or around the first quarter of 2024.

In response to a question from Sky News, a Nissan spokesman said: “From the beginning of 2024, the Nissan Sunderland Plant will stop producing cylinder heads on-site.

“We don’t expect this to result in job losses and are working with employees as we redeploy them to other parts of the business.”

The latest reorganization of Nissan’s Sunderland site, which employs about 6,000 people, follows years of speculation about its post-Brexit future.

In 2019, the company said it would no longer be making the X-Trail in the Northeast, adding to the gloom that enveloped the industry at the time.

Since then, however, Nissan has reaffirmed its broader commitment to Sunderland, announcing last year that it would partner with a Chinese company to build a new power plant in the city as part of a £1 billion electric vehicle project called the Nissan EV36Zero.