Demag’s management board proposed the plans as a response to the global economic and financial crisis. Demag said these changes will results in “significant savings in the following years to ensure the group will be able to meet the challenges of the future”.
“This action has become necessary due to the significant fall in demand for products both in the industrial cranes and port technology segments,” the supervisory board said in a statement.
“As the crane and material handling sectors are affected late in the economic cycle, the Demag Cranes group is only now feeling the full impact of the global economic and financial crisis with a delay of around six months. As a result, group order intake in the second quarter of the financial year 2008/2009 was down by more than 40% from the previous year.
“As the extent and duration of the crisis still cannot be predicted, these packages of measures will now be implemented to secure the financial stability of the group on the basis of its sound balance sheet. In particular, it is necessary to lower the break-even points in order to improve the group’s ability to operate in a highly competitive environment.
“Consequently, the company believes that capacity adjustments cannot be tackled using labour policies such as shedding temporary workers or implementing short-time working alone. The supervisory board of Demag Cranes supports this view.”
