Konecranes will close its crane production and assembly facility in Birmingham, AL, U.S.A. by December 31, 2009. The factory closure affects 18 employees in crane production and assembly.
This factory closure is part of Konecranes’ 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 and third quarter interim reports 2009 i.e. an annual cost saving target of 100 MEUR in 2010 compared to 2008, and estimated 17-22 MEUR restructuring costs to be booked during 2009.
The Birmingham facility is a fabrication and assembly plant, producing industrial cranes for deliveries mainly into the southern areas of the U.S. Current and future customer orders will be serviced by other Konecranes facilities in the U.S.
Further information:
Press
Arto Engbom, Director, Global Supply Operations
e-mail: [email protected] or phone +358 427 3030
Investors and analysts
Mikael Wegmüller, director, marketing and communications, Konecranes Plc
E-mail: [email protected] or phone +358 20 427 2008
U.S. and Canadian inquiries
Scott Gilbey, Vice President Marketing & Communications, Konecranes Region Americas
E-mail: [email protected] or phone +1.937.525.5676
This press release is available at our website www.konecranes.com.
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 EUR 2,103 million. The Group has 9,700 employees, at 485 locations in 43 countries. Konecranes is listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd (symbol: KCR1V).
