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Konecranes Closes Factory in Ettlingen, Germany

Konecranes will close down its production facility in Ettlingen, Germany, by March 31, 2010. The move affects about 85 employees in crane production and assembly, component production, and plant administration.
 
Manufacturing at Konecranes’ factories in Künzelsau and Liebengrün will continue unchanged.
 
The factory close-down is part of the company’s previously communicated decision to restructure its organization and reduce costs, based on a sharp drop in demand and a low industrial capacity utilization rate. The action is included in the estimates announced in the second quarter interim report 2009: an annual cost-saving target of €100 million in 2010 compared to 2008, and €15 to 20 million restructuring costs to be booked during the second half of 2009.
 
Management and the local works council will start negotiations on personnel arrangements. The annual production of cranes in Ettlingen represented about 15% of Konecranes’ industrial cranes in 2008.
 
Konecranes is a world-leading group of Lifting Businesses, serving a broad range of customers including manufacturing and process industries, shipyards, ports, and terminals. Konecranes provides productivity-enhancing lifting solutions as well as services for lifting equipment and machine tools of all makes. In 2008, group sales totaled €2,103 million. The group has 9700 employees, at 485 locations in 43 countries.