Lear moves to sell its plants in Russia

Lear isn’t the only company in this predicament. Canadian automotive supply giant Magna International Inc., which has a major presence in metro Detroit, has six manufacturing plants and 2,500 employees in Russia. The company also idled operations there in March.

The plants remain shut down, and the assets are still owned by Magna, a company spokeswoman told Crain’s on Tuesday.

Other manufacturers have also moved to sell off assets after pausing or scaling back operations.

Ford Motor Co. and General Motors halted business in Russia, and Ford sold its stake in a joint venture in the country.

Koch Industries, the parent company of Guardian Industries, sold its business in Russia, composed of two glass-making plants and 600 employees, to Vladimir Alexandrovich Voronin, president of FSK Group, for an undisclosed sum in July.

As of May, some other Michigan-based companies still had operations in Russia, including Domino’s Pizza Inc., Tenneco Inc., Dow Inc. and Kellogg Co. Crain’s reached out to each of those companies to check on the status of operations and assets in Russia, but they did not immediately respond.

Lear, based in suburban Detroit, ranks No. 10 on the Automotive News 2022 list of the top 100 global suppliers with worldwide sales to automakers of $19.3 billion in 2021.