The sputtering economic engine and the associated uncertainties in a wide variety of industries are increasingly leaving their mark. Aluminum processor Hammerer Aluminum Industries, HAI for short, also had to respond to the falling demand. The result: a freeze on investments and the loss of 250 jobs.
Climate panels and crash elements for the railway industry, special profiles for mechanical engineering, front and rear axle carriers, floor profiles and battery housings for vehicles – Hammerer Aluminium Industries, HAI for short, processes and machines aluminium for a wide range of industries.
The company, which operates from Ranshofen (Upper Austria), has been inextricably linked to expansion and major investments in recent years. Now the savings pen had to come out: the investments that were planned for this year were stopped. “Some projects have been postponed in consultation with the departments and the external services for projects and maintenance have been scaled back,” says general manager Rob van Gils.
Personnel costs were also reduced. This year, 250 jobs have already been lost across the group, 100 of which were at the Innviertel location. The number of employees fell from a total of 2,100 to 1,850. Half of the reductions were due to non-replacement, the other half to layoffs.
“Reduced working hours are excluded”
“In recent years, we have been able to secure numerous orders that should lead to full production capacity. In addition, many investments have been made to guarantee the sustainable success of the HAI. However, due to the economic situation in Europe, our customers are currently not calling in orders or are only calling in partially, and we have to do justice to the lower purchases,” says van Gils. It was not possible to apply for short-time working: “According to the current Austrian regulations, short-time working is not an option for us.”
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
