The adverse economic environment has left a mark on plastics machinery giant KraussMaffei (KM, Munich / Germany; www.kraussmaffei.com). A company representative told Plasteurope.com the German group is planning to cut 510 jobs worldwide over the next three years. This means that the move would impact nearly 10% of its workforce, which totalled 5,134 employees at the end of 2020. The bulk of the jobs to be cut are in Germany, where the cost reduction plans are focused on 430 jobs, mainly in production. Of those, 334 are to be cut this year, with the rest in 2021 (76 jobs) and 2022 (20). According to media reports, KM anticipates expenditures resulting from the measures to be around EUR 28m.

The company, which has been part of ChemChina since 2016 – see Plasteurope.com of 04.05.2016 – intends to proceed with the job cuts in a socially responsible manner and avoid layoffs for operational reasons as far as possible. According to the spokesperson, the planned measures include voluntary programmes, regulations on partial retirement and not filling positions that become vacant. A transfer company will also be set up for employees leaving the company.

The representative cited economic developments as the reason for the job cuts, adding that the willingness to invest has drastically declined in the automotive customer segment as a result of that industry’s crisis, and that the trade conflict between the US and China along with the uncertainties surrounding Brexit have brought further turmoil. The negative image of plastics in the public discourse has also had a general adverse effect.

The representative emphasised that KraussMaffei’s current investment programme remains unaffected by the austerity measures. This includes the construction of a larger headquarters east of Munich in Parsdorf, the new German plants in Laatzen and Einbeck and the expansion of its production facility in Jiaxing, Zhejiang / China – see Plasteurope.com of 28.01.2019 and 23.10.2019. The opening of the latter was postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus epidemic, but is expected to follow soon. Injection moulding machinery production in Haiyan, Zhejiang / China, which has also been suspended due to the epidemic, could resume 17 February at the earliest if the authorities give the green light.