THE ESSENTIALS IN 30 SECONDS

  • Schaeffler will cut a net 3,460 positions in Europe, about 2,660 of them in Germany, and close five sites, with most measures planned for 2027 and 2028.
  • The program should cost about €480 million once and save about €300 million a year from 2030.
  • The company names humanoid robotics and defence as growth fields; humanoid orders stood at about €400 million in October, but robotics was under 1% of 2025 group sales.

Schaeffler, the German automotive and industrial supplier based in Herzogenaurach, announced on November 3 a new performance program that removes a net 3,460 positions in Europe. About 2,660 of those cuts fall in Germany. Roughly half of the affected roles are in production, 30% in research and development and the rest in other functions.

Sites, costs and timeline

Five European sites are affected by closures, four of them in Germany: Dortmund, Morbach, Berlin and Schwalbach, plus Herstal in Belgium. Most staff from Berlin and Schwalbach are expected to move to Frankfurt, with about 190 positions lost in the process. Toolmaking at Höchstadt will stop, and other German plants face capacity adjustments. According to Humanoids Daily, Dortmund and Morbach both make products for combustion engines.

The company puts one-time costs at about €480 million, mostly booked as restructuring provisions in 2026, and expects annual savings of about €300 million from 2030. The structural measures are mainly scheduled for 2027 and 2028. Humanoids Daily reports that chief executive Klaus Rosenfeld cited German personnel costs about 2.5 times those elsewhere in Europe and did not exclude further cuts after 2028.

The robotics bet, in proportion

In its release, Schaeffler says chief operating officer Jochen Schröder sees humanoid robotics and defence as promising fields, and that new positions there should offset at least part of the reduction. The release gives no figures for either area.

Humanoids Daily fills in some context. Schaeffler sells planetary gear actuators to robot makers, presented an all-in-one humanoid actuator in December 2025 and is preparing formed strain wave gearboxes for mass production in 2027. Its humanoid order intake was about €400 million as of October 20, 2026, after two new customers in Greater China; customers and delivery schedules were not disclosed. The company is also a buyer, with deployment commitments involving Neura Robotics, Hexagon's AEON humanoid and the UK firm Humanoid.

Those numbers need perspective. Orders are not revenue, and robotics accounted for less than 1% of group sales in 2025. Schaeffler has not said how many robotics or defence jobs it will create, or when. For now, the restructuring is driven mainly by the shrinking combustion-engine business, while humanoid components remain a small, early-stage line whose eventual scale is unproven.