Wärtsilä has announced plans to reduce its European manufacturing capacity and move the majority of its propeller and auxiliary engine production to China.
The current propeller manufacturing in Drunen, and the component manufacturing DTS in Zwolle, both in The Netherlands, will be closed down.
The Wärtsilä 20 generating set production in Vaasa Finland will also close and move to China.
In 2010, Wärtsilä plans to reduce approximately 1,400 jobs globally within the group. Of these reductions 570 are planned to be in the Netherlands. The remaining reduction will impact various divisions, functions and countries and will be clarified during the first half of this year.
Wärtsilä currently employs 1,561 people in the Netherlands.
"Wärtsilä Ship Power order intake was significantly lower than during previous years," Ole Johansson, President and CEO of Wärtsilä said.
According to a company statement, the non-recurring costs related to the restructuring will be approximately US$197 million. This includes non-cash write offs of approximately US$70.5 million of which US$56.4 million is recognised in 2009. Wärtsilä is looking for cost savings of approximately US$125.5 million to US$126.9 million. Wärtsilä said that the effect of the savings would start to materialise during 2010, and would take full effect in the first half of 2011.
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