DaimlerChrysler plans 10,000 job cuts in US

CHICAGO: DaimlerChrysler plans to slash 10,000 factory jobs in the United States as part of a sweeping cost-cutting plan for its struggling Chrysler Group, the Detroit News reported on Monday.   

Citing a restructuring plan expected to be unveiled February 14, the News said the German-US auto group also plans to implement "unprecedented" collaboration between the mass-market Chrysler and luxury Mercedes groups.   

This could include mutual development of small cars and sports utility vehicles, a sharing of vehicle parts and architecture and expanded common purchasing.   

A spokesman for DaimlerChrysler was not immediately available for comment.   

Company chairman Dieter Zetsche has so far resisted calls from German investors to dump Chrysler -- which lost a projected 1.2 billion dollars last year as its market share in the US slipped to 13 per cent.   

But sources at the company told the News that the success of the restructuring plan is "critical" to Chrysler's future. Analysts agree.   

"Either there needs to be much more true integration by Chrysler and Mercedes, or they need to separate the business," John Casesa of the investment firm Casesa Shapiro Group, told the News.

"Right now, Chrysler is in no man's land."   

"It makes sense to do this," said Juergen Pieper, the chief auto analyst at Metzler Bank in Germany. "If they go forward together, they have to go closer together."