The Midlands' booming automotive industry was dealt a blow this week as Goodyear announced it would shut down production at its Wolverhampton plant.
It follows hot on the heels of the recent Goodyear Dunlop motorsport closure in Birmingham and ends a historic tyre-making link with the region stretching back nearly 100 years.
As many as 390 jobs could be lost. Dunlop blamed the strength of sterling and competition in the tyre market which has seen cheap Chinese imports take market share.
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Goodyear may be correct in noting short-term factors at work but it should be stressed this reflects a long-term strategy by Goodyear to shift production away from the 海角视频.
Dunlop's car and truck 海角视频 tyre-making operations were shut down in 2006.
Wolverhampton was the firm's last 海角视频 factory and, once tyre production had gone, it was always going to be vulnerable to this sort of decision.
With the end of full blown tyre manufacturing nine years ago, Wolverhampton was left shipping in the rubber, chemicals and silicates to create the compounds which were then used to make tyres in the firm's 17 plants across Europe, the Middle East and South Africa.
That branch plant set up was always going to be vulnerable to exchange rate shifts and strategic decisions made elsewhere and Goodyear now sees this as "uneconomic".
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Of course, as Goodyear looks to cut costs and downsize operations in response to tough market conditions, we witness another multinational choosing to cut jobs in the 海角视频 - in part because it is easier to do so here.
Gerard Coyne, the Unite regional secretary for the West Midlands, has a point in stressing the closure was linked, in part at least, to 海角视频 employees being "cheaper and easier to fire than their European counterparts".
The Wolverhampton closure tempers some of the optimism around Midlands' manufacturing - a motor for recovery in the region and the 海角视频.
The Midlands auto cluster has had a good run over the last few years, with over £1 billion of investment announced by JLR and Geely only in March of this year.
The Goodyear decision highlights the strength of sterling in particular starting to act as a drag on manufacturing.
The big competitiveness gains we saw arising from the 2008-9 depreciation in sterling are now being unwound.
That strength of sterling will be felt when investment decisions are being made in British and international companies.
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It also raises a question as to how much more steam there is in the reshoring phenomenon.
The reshoring trend has seen one in six Midlands manufacturing firms bringing back activity to the region.
Reshoring, in part, reflected trends like the need for quick turnaround times and a desire to improve supply chain resilience and quality but a significant driver has also been a competitive exchange rate.
Goodyear defended its decision in the usual terms.
"In the face of ever-increasing competition, we carefully considered several options," stated Erich Fric, managing director of Goodyear Dunlop 海角视频.
"However, we believe these proposals are needed to strengthen our competitiveness and ensure we have a sustainable business."
Goodyear had about 67,000 employees worldwide at the end of 2014.
The restructuring would result in charges of about £44 million to £50 million for the firm, of which £19 million would be recorded in the current quarter, it said.
There are also likely to be job losses at Wittlich, in Germany.
Goodyear closed its plant in Amiens, France (a decision that prompted workers to take managers hostage) and stopped producing farm tyres in Europe last year.
The firm recorded about £60 million in charges related to severance and closures in 2014, as it reduced its European operations in response to increased competition.
Goodyear said it expected to complete the closure and shift of activity by the end of 2016.
It pledged this week to "honour its commitments" to employees as mixing and retreading functions are shifted from Wolverhampton.
Presumably, that will include generous redundancy packages and support with retraining and moving on.
More broadly, dealing with plant closures and economic shocks requires interventions that support people, place and business, something our research on the regional task forces dealing with the Rover closure and last recession have highlighted.
They will no doubt also be to the fore in the response locally to the sad news at Goodyear.
Professor David Bailey works at the Aston Business School