Already for quite some time now, Voith Paper has seen its business with new machines and large rebuilds at locations in Germany and Austria severely stressed by a structural reduction in demand for graphic paper machines. This structural change will also continue in the coming years. In addition, there is a weakening economic situation in the global paper market that is more severe than expected. In particular, the Chinese market is growing noticeably more slowly than predicted by market analysts in the past year.

“With the worsening of the market outlook and the intensifying of the structural changes on the demand side, the foundations for our future planning in Germany and Austria have also changed once again. The slackened demand in Europe can no longer be balanced by large orders from China. Thus there is no way around an adjustment of capacities at our main locations in Germany and Austria,” says Dr. Hans-Peter Sollinger, CEO at Voith Paper.

Against the background of this development, a jobs cut-back in Germany and Austria is unavoidable. The Voith Paper locations in Krefeld (around 210 jobs), Ravensburg (around 50 jobs), Neuwied (around 10 jobs) and in St. Poelten, Austria (around 290 jobs) are affected by this. In addition, as already announced in August, 240 jobs are being eliminated at Voith Paper in Heidenheim that are part of the Group-wide package of measures for the Heidenheim location.

Today the Management Board of Voith Paper informed the works council committees and employees at the locations affected. Current planning envisages that the measures should be implemented by September 30, 2014. Terminations for operational reasons at individual locations cannot be ruled out at this point.

“This cut is bitter and painful. However, after careful consideration, it is unavoidable in order to align our capacities in Europe to the changed demand. This is a prerequisite to stay profitable and competitive under the changed market conditions", says Dr. Sollinger. Voith Paper’s portfolio remains unchanged despite the bundling of capacities. “We will continue to support our customers in the future with solutions for the entire papermaking process and for all paper grades. The paper industry will also remain an attractive business segment in the future for the Voith Group”, underlines Dr. Sollinger.