swedishamerican car safety equipment maker autoliv said thursday it aimed to close facilities in germany and britain as part of costcutting measure undertaken in response to pressure from soaring inflation in early june the worldleading producer of products such as seatbelts and airbags announced that it would cut its global staff by 8000 positions the company said thursday that it aims to shut a site in elmshorn germany and consolidate its technical centre and most customerfacing activities to another facility in dachau by early 2025 it added that it was evaluating a possible closure of its textile weaving facility in congleton britain which would affect around 250 employees with the aim of relocating production by the end of 2025 in line with our previous announcement these are the first actions in reducing our total workforce and important steps in the optimization of our geographic footprint autoliv ceo mikael bratt said in a statement in june autoliv said it was negotiating to secure pricing as it struggles to pass on increased production costs to its customers  carmakers in europe the groups strongest presence is in romania where it employs 10500 people it has some 2500 employees in poland and around 2000 each in hungary and france outside europe it employs 15000 people in mexico 9000 in china 4000 in thailand and 3000 in turkey in april the company announced it was building a new factory in vietnam set up to produce airbag cushions and fabric where it expected to employ up to 2000 people