Bosch tries to help suppliers through crisis: report

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Robert Bosch ROBG.UL is trying to help its suppliers weather the global economic crisis, but the automotive supplier could reach its limits if the situation worsened, Chief Executive Franz Fehrenbach said.

"We can bolster individual cases, and we do," he told Stuttgarter Zeitung in an interview to be published Thursday.

"But we could never, ever absorb the entire value chain. That exceeds by far our financial abilities."

Suppliers have been hit hard by a sharp drop in auto output, a credit crunch that has made borrowing difficult, and tighter restrictions by credit insurers.

The European Association of Automotive Suppliers said on Monday that one in 10 European automotive suppliers could go bust within months if governments failed to come up with 25 billion euros in loan guarantees for them.

Fehrenbach said he expects the number of Bosch's suppliers facing trouble to increase in coming weeks.

Like many of its peers, Bosch is trying to keep a tight hold on its cash by slashing costs. The company plans to reduce working hours for its workers and cut outside jobs abroad.

Fehrenbach said the company has so far cut fewer than 1,000 jobs in Czech Republic, the United States and Brazil.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)