Germany-based plantmaker SMS Group has announced that it will cut costs by optimizing internal processes and procedures and reduce the number of employees due to the continued difficult economic conditions in the metallurgical plant and machinery construction market and the continued low investment volume in new metallurgical plants as a result of the ongoing challenges from overcapacities in the steel industry.
According to the company’s statement, it is now informing the workforce at the Mönchengladbach, Hilchenbach, Düsseldorf, and Witten locations in Germany. By 2020, the company will reduce its workforce by 570 employees in Germany from today’s staff of 4,100. Of these reductions 440 will be realized in the current year.
Burkhard Dahmen, the company’s chairman and CEO, stated that a share of the savings from the personnel reductions will be reinvested into new products and processes, adding that, to secure their future, SMS is expanding its growth fields. According to Mr. Dahmen, they have already attracted a first order in the area of electronic waste recycling and SMS is commissioning its plant for manufacturing metal powder, which is the input material for metal 3D printing, in Mönchengladbach.