Bosch to cut 13,000 jobs to bring down costs in tough autos market

BERLIN, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Germany's Robert Bosch ROBG.UL will cut 13,000 jobs as the world's top autos supplier battles a sluggish market, high costs and pressure from rivals that have left it with an annual cost gap of 2.5 billion euros ($2.9 billion), it said on Thursday.

The company has previously said it expects to "fight over every cent" in a cut-throat market as demand remains weak and trade barriers exacerbate an already challenging economic environment.

Bosch said in a statement it wants to reduce costs as quickly as possible. As well as job cuts, it wants to reduce material and operating costs, lower investments in facilities and buildings, and streamline logistics and supply chains.

It will cut jobs at various German locations on various timelines until the end of 2030, it said. Significant overcapacity have existed for some time in administration and sales, and in development and production due to the drop in demand, it said.

"We urgently need to work on our competitiveness in the mobility sector and continue to permanently reduce our costs," said Stefan Grosch, a management board member and director of industrial relations. "This is very painful for us, but unfortunately there is no way around it."

CEO Stefan Hartung told Reuters this month there would be "structural adjustments", while forecasting Bosch's revenues would grow about 2% in 2025 from last year's 90.5 billion euros.

Bosch last year had about 418,000 employees globally.

In a reprieve for Europe's car industry, Washington said on Wednesday it was implementing the U.S. trade agreement with the European Union, confirming that a lowered 15% duty rate for EU autos and auto parts began on August 1.

Germany's VDA car industry association, however, said the remaining trade barriers were still a challenge and that the EU should push to improve transatlantic trade conditions further.

"Geopolitical developments and trade barriers such as tariffs lead to considerable uncertainty – we, like all companies, have to deal with this," said Markus Heyn, another Bosch board member and chair of its Mobility division.

"It is to be expected that the intensity of competition will continue to increase significantly."

($1 = 0.8512 euros)