Volvo Gent Supplier Collapse: Only 2 of 12 Remain

The announced closure of Canadian bumper manufacturer Plasman, followed by the departure of supplier Benteler next year, will leave just two of the twelve companies that once fed parts to Volvo Car Gent, according to VRT NWS. The shrinking ring of local suppliers lays bare a deepening crisis in Flanders’ flagship automotive cluster — and, one union veteran warns, the disappearance of the safety net that once protected its workers.

“Twenty years ago, Volvo gave people work when a supplier went under,” said Marc Staelens, an ABVV union representative who has guided supplier workers for more than two decades. “Now it is every man for himself.”

A Contract-by-Contract Existence

Plasman confirmed the definitive closure of its Ghent port facility on 24 September, eliminating more than 300 jobs in phases between the end of December 2026 and the end of June 2027. Of those, roughly 130 workers who served Volvo directly already knew in June that they would lose their jobs; about 210 more across the remaining plant are now affected.

The company cited the loss of both its Volvo contracts and its BMW/Mini activity in Germany. Benteler, another supplier, will halt production in Ghent in April 2027 when its own Volvo contract expires unrenewed — a move that affects 48 employees, for whom a social agreement was reached in mid-September, as Flows reported.

When Staelens began his work in the early 2000s, Volvo Car Gent worked with twelve supplier firms. Two were lost almost immediately. In those years, when a supplier failed, Volvo itself absorbed nearly all of the displaced workers. That cushion no longer exists.

“Plasman employees have done years of heavy labour,” Staelens said. “Some have back problems — perfectly normal. But who will hire them then? We are asking people to do what is essentially impossible.”

Why the Suppliers Are Disappearing

The attrition reflects structural forces reshaping Europe’s automotive supply chain. As manufacturers pivoted from combustion engines to electric vehicles, suppliers of legacy components lost their contracts. Chinese competition — and cheaper Chinese vehicles — further disrupted the market, while production migrated eastward to lower-cost countries.

Volvo Car Gent operates in the North Sea Port area and supports roughly 6,500 jobs, making it one of Flanders’ largest industrial employers. Yet its parent, China’s Geely, has shifted capacity to Slovakia, where wages are lower and proximity to Asian supply chains is closer. “The carmakers go where the suppliers are,” Staelens said. “Not in Ghent anymore.”

Adding to the insecurity, Volvo re-reviews every supplier contract on a four-year cycle, forcing firms to re-justify their selection each time. “As an employee, you had stress every four years,” Staelens recalled.

The Political Response

The crisis has drawn direct state intervention. In June, the Flemish government freed up as much as 119 million euros to keep the Ghent plant — 30 million for energy efficiency and circular production, up to 80 million over a decade for innovation in battery technology and digitalisation, and 9 million for staff training, according to VRT NWS. The package aims to secure the 6,500 Volvo jobs and opens the door to building models for Polestar, Lynk & Co or Zeekr.

Flemish Minister-President Matthias Diependaele stressed the support was conditional: “This is not a blank cheque. The aid comes only when the investments actually happen.” Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has also set up a taskforce on the plant’s future.

Earlier this year the plant’s vulnerability became visible when a strike at Plasman over unclear futures halted final assembly at Volvo Car Gent and temporarily idled some 4,000 Volvo workers — an illustration of how tightly the local supply chain remains bound.

What’s Next

Only two suppliers now remain: MC Syncro in Desteldonk, which mounts tyres on rims and serves both Volvo Car Gent and Volvo Sweden — giving it two contracts — and Adient in Assenede, which covers car seats and has just secured a new four-year deal.

Staelens sees their near-term prospects as sound, but the four-year horizon tempers any optimism. For the hundreds of Plasman workers, meanwhile, a fresh concern looms: Belgium’s new rules limiting the duration of unemployment benefits could hit older laid-off workers hardest.

“I fear it will not be easy for these people to find other work within two years,” Staelens said. As the supplier map around Ghent empties out, that individual struggle has become the emblem of a regional industrial reckoning — one driven by forces far beyond any single factory gate.