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According to a report by Telex, more than 100 employees could soon be laid off at the CATL factory in Debrecen, the result of a top-down corporate decision. The round of layoffs is already underway. One affected worker said the reason was that in the “current market environment,” the company needs more Chinese professionals than Hungarian ones.

The terminations began last week, initially affecting employees still on probation. This week, the cuts extended to those with permanent contracts. Some of them had been with the company’s Hungarian subsidiary for over a year. The layoffs are impacting not just factory workers, but office staff, skilled labourers, quality inspectors, and process engineers as well. Chinese management has not provided the affected employees with a reason for the decision.

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The company has struggled to attract workers. Resistance to battery manufacturing remains strong, and some employees leave shortly after being hired, spreading negative word-of-mouth and damaging the company’s reputation. These challenges may have led the Chinese leadership to stop recruiting locals for mid-level management and skilled positions. The immediate cause for the downsizing may be that CATL is no longer expanding production as previously planned. Construction on the second plant unit has been suspended indefinitely.

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In 2022, CATL announced plans to build a massive battery plant in Debrecen with an investment of HUF 3 trillion (EUR 7.5 billion), creating thousands of jobs in three phases and absorbing a large share of the local workforce. For now, only the first unit has been completed. Test production is set to begin this fall, followed by mass production in the winter. It’s still unclear how the current layoffs will affect the Hungarian government’s significant financial investment in the project.

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