In response to “weak market demand due to the low oil price and low number of new merchant ship orders”, MacGregor will reduce its workforce by 100 at its MacGregor Hatlapa subsidiary in Uetersen, Germany. These will come into effect by the end of this year and achieve savings of EUR7 million in 2016, MacGregor’s parent Cargotec has announced, while incurring initial restructuring costs of EUR5 million for 2015.
Cargotec bought Hatlapa in July 2013 for EUR160 million as the then privately-owned company was seen as a good fit into MacGregor’s ship cargo-handling product portfolio as it makes winches, steering gear and compressors.
However, as reported by ihsmaritime360.com in July, Cargotec’s second quarter figures were affected by MacGregor’s poor results, especially its orderbook that had shrivelled 32% year-on-year. Cost and efficiency programmes were already underway when new MacGregor boss Michel van Roozendaal arrived this month. Now it appears his first decisions have accelerated these processes to “ensure competitiveness in the long-term over the current market cycle (that) requires constant development of MacGregor’s businesses globally” Cargotec stated.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
