Category: Toimialat


Porsche makes offer for Scania

Filed Under: Transportation by pietrox — Leave a comment
20/01/2009

Porsche yesterday made a token offer for Scania, the Swedish truckmaker, but reaffirmed it did not intend to succeed with this mandatory bid.

The German sports carmaker sparked this general offer after it increased its stake in Volkswagen to 50.76 per cent two weeks ago. Europe’s largest carmaker, which is now controlled by Porsche, owns 69 per cent of Scania.

Porsche offered the minimum price of SKr68.52 per A share and SKr67.10 per B share. Both offers are below the stock’s Friday close and yesterday’s trading price.

Porsche yesterday reiterated it “did not have a strategic interest in buying Scania shares”. Scania said its board of executives would give a recommendation on the share offer on February 3, one week before Porsche’s bid will expire.

VW not only owns a majority in Scania but also a controlling stake of 30 per cent in its German rival, MAN. Industry executives expect the latter and Scania to merge, probably this year. Following MAN’s sale of VW’s truck assets, it is still unclear what the complicated structure would look like

The article: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/de9ac2a2-e692-11dd-8e4f-0000779fd2ac.html

Initial story: Porsche launches mandatory offer for Scania

Tags:
Comment

MAN Truck will take 42 stop days ih H1'09

Filed Under: PKC Group, Transportation by pietrox — Leave a comment
20/01/2009

German industrial conglomerate MAN AG <MANG.DE> will stop production of trucks at its German plants for 42 days during the first half of the year due to the economic downturn, it said on Monday.

Employee representatives and local authorities had agreed to shorter worker hours at the plants in Munich, Nuremberg and Salzgitter, a MAN spokesman told Reuters.

Around 9,400 employees will be affected by the measures. The spokesman said he could not rule out further short working hours in the second half of the year. MAN had said in December output at its core trucks business could drop 30 percent in 2009 and it would halt truck production for 40 to 50 days.

Shares in MAN reversed gains to trade down 0.4 percent at 33.37 euros by 1447 GMT.  Shares had risen as high as 35.25 euros, following a mandatory bid from Porsche

Tags:
Comment

Metso adjusts its Finnish operations in response to the weakened demand in the pulp and paper industry

Filed Under: Engineering, Forest, Pöyry by pietrox — Leave a comment
19/01/2009

Metso Corporation’s company release, January 19, 2009, 11:00 a.m. local time
A press conference (in Finnish) for media will be held today, Monday, January 19, 2009, 1:00 p.m. at Metso’s Corporate Head Office, Fabianinkatu 9 A, Helsinki. A conference call (in English) for analysts will be held at 2:00 p.m. Instructions for participating in the conference call are included at the end of this press release.

Metso will start personnel negotiations regarding employee reductions in Finnish units serving the paper industry. The employee reduction is estimated to affect a total of 900-1,200 employees. Approximately 4,700 employees work in the units subject to the personnel negotiations. The possible reduction in the number of units and the consolidation of operations into bigger units will be examined as part of the negotiations.

View full article »

Tags:
Read More & Comment

MAN stops German truck plant output for 42 days

Filed Under: PKC Group, Transportation by pietrox — Leave a comment
19/01/2009

MUNICH, Jan 19 (Reuters) – German industrial conglomerate MAN AG <MANG.DE> will stop production of trucks at its German plants for 42 days during the first half of the year due to the economic downturn, it said on Monday.

Employee representatives and local authorities had agreed to shorter worker hours at the plants in Munich, Nuremberg and Salzgitter, a MAN spokesman told Reuters.

Around 9,400 employees will be affected by the measures. The spokesman said he could not rule out further short working hours in the second half of the year.

MAN had said in December output at its core trucks business could drop 30 percent in 2009 and it would halt truck production for 40 to 50 days. Shares in MAN reversed gains to trade down 0.4 percent at 33.37 euros by 1447 GMT.  Shares had risen as high as 35.25 euros, following a mandatory bid from Porsche

Tags:
Comment

PKC group prepares for heavy drop in volumes

Filed Under: PKC Group, Transportation by pietrox — Leave a comment
16/01/2009

PKC Group announced on Friday that it had finalised the co-determination negotiations in its unit in Raahe for temporary lay-offs due to decreased demand of industrial electronics devices. As a result of the negotiations PKC Electronics shall lay-off 60 persons for a maximum of three months.

PKC Group finalized also the co-determination negotiations for temporary lay-offs of Kempele unit’s personnel on Friday. Negotiations were started due to decreased demand of wiring harnesses.

Lay-offs concern almost all PKC Group Oyj’s personnel in Kempele, about 250 persons. Lay-offs shall commence gradually and their duration will vary from function to function from one week to longer periods of time. Current plan is that the lay-offs last for a maximum of 14 weeks by the end of June, after which they may be prolonged if need be. Lay-offs will begin earliest in the beginning of February. (Stock Exchange release, during trade)

Raahe employs roughly 300 workers and thus temporary lay-offs account for 20% of work force.

If the Kempele lay-offs would last the maximum of 14 weeks for productional staff, the drop from 2008 figures equals roughly 50% in H1’09 and thus, the company is preparing for heavy drop in wiring harness business.

Electronics division: Nokia is a major customer for PKC Group, and presumably its expenditure cuts were the main reason for surprisingly drastic layoffs.

Harri Suutari cut also his own salary by 1/3 as a sympathy gesture.

Tags: ,
Comment

Yli sata jo irtisanottu suunnittelualalla

Filed Under: Engineering, Pöyry by pietrox — Leave a comment
16/01/2009

Lama niittää väkeä suunnittelualalla. Tammikuun puolessa välissä irtisanottuja ylempiä toimihenkilöitä oli jo noin sata ja lomautettuja lähes 300.

Lukuisissa alan yrityksissä käydään parhaillaan yt-neuvotteluja, jotka koskevat noin 1 200 alan palkansaajaa. He ovat suurimmaksi osaksi ylempiä toimihenkilöitä.

View full article »

Tags:
Read More & Comment

Beverage outlook weakens in the Baltic countries

Filed Under: Consumer, Olvi by pietrox — Leave a comment
16/01/2009

The Estonian beverage house Saku Olletehas said on Thursday it will cut 16 jobs and apply part-time work and partially paid leave in its production department from Jan. 26 to March 31.

“We believe that these changes in the organization will allow Saku to better adapt itself to the changing market situation, which is affected mainly by the economic decline and the increase in excise duty in Estonia,” Saku’s CEO Veli Pekka Tennila said. Tennila added that five former employees of Saku have taken up jobs with the company’s help with PowerWave AS, a cooperation partner of Saku. Carlsberg, the owner of Saku Olletehas, announced on Thursday that it will lay off at least 270 employees in Denmark, Norway and the Baltic states in the course of restructuring.’

Carlsberg said that in the Baltic countries it was responding to decreased sales figures with a sped-up restructuring plan, as a result of which the number of employees will be reduced by 124 in addition to the 80 cuts announced in October. The layoffs will take place during the first quarter of the year. (Reuters)

It seems that beverages are more exposed to worse economic conditions as one might think. We expect also Olvi’s profitability to be affected (sales mix to worsen). So far A Le Coq’s beer volumes have been increasing, even though the aggregate sales have been declining
in Estonia.

*Negative news for Olvi

More info: Carlsberg’s announcement

Tags:
Comment

Tiimari’s sales inline with estimates in 2008

Filed Under: Consumer, Tiimari by pietrox — Leave a comment
15/01/2009

Tiimari Group’s sales were 15.9 million euro in December 2008 up by 3 per cent on the corresponding month previous year. The whole year 2008 sales were 85.0 million euro up by 14 per cent.
Tiimari’s investments in the new market areas resulted in sales increase in Sweden, Poland, Russia and Lithuania. Gallerix sales are consolidated in 2007 figures for November and December only due to the acquisition in 2007. The Tiimore business has been reorganized and realigned during the year 2008. The sales information may change when the final annual closing is done. (Stock Exchange release, during trade)

Our estimate for FY08 sales were EUR 86.3m and thus Tiimari’s figures did not provide surprises and focus is now in profitability in the Q4’08 report. We expect significant profit improvement from last year and the whole year’s result would still be in the red. Our recommendation sustains.
*Neutral news for Tiimari

Source: stock exchange release

Comment

RISI ECONOMISTS: Will recession cut tissue consumption growth?

Filed Under: Consumer, Forest, PKC Group, Tiimari by pietrox — Leave a comment
15/01/2009

TARNBERG, Germany, Jan. 15, 2009 (Viewpoint) – Among all paper and board grades, tissue has proved to be the one most insensitive to changes in the economic environment of the paper business. Tissue has recorded a continuous global consumption growth rate of roughly 4% per year in recent history, with only slight variation from year to year, but no single year registering a decline. However, in the current situation, with months of financial and economic turmoil that has spread to all continents, many have raised the question: What will be the consequences of the global recession to the tissue business in 2009?

We cannot argue that the global recession does not have any effect on tissue markets and industry. In the United States, where the serious problems with financial institutions and indeed the whole financing system began in September 2008, the effects of weakening tissue demand are now gradually being seen in the marketplace. The average capacity utilization rate in the tissue industry has declined for three consecutive months, and the industry has had to react by taking additional downtime to adjust supply to the new situation. This trend is expected to continue over the next few months.

View full article »

Tags:
Read More & Comment

Worldwide pulp downtime topped 2 million tonnes in late 2008

Filed Under: Forest, Tamfelt by pietrox — Leave a comment
14/01/2009

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 8, 2009 (RISI) – As producers around the world grappled with weak demand and an oversupply of pulp, the list of firms taking market-related downtime grew to include every grade made in the industry. According to a RISI poll, global producers curtailed more than 2 million tonnes of output over the last four months of 2008.

Producers slowed down production, closed mills temporarily and permanently, and altogether trimmed an estimated 2.191 million tonnes of output worldwide from September through December, according to the poll, which included the four key producing regions of North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.

Softwood kraft downtime totaled an estimated 874,000 tonnes, while hardwood kraft totaled 1.153 million tonnes — mainly because several large Asian mills shuttered for most of the fourth quarter.

North American producers took the most downtime of the four major producing regions, with 21 companies shedding an estimated 853,000 tonnes across all grades of market pulp produced in the USA and Canada.

At least three Canadian producers of bleached chemi-thermomechanical (BCTMP) took downtime, and the grade was excluded from the softwood and hardwood tallies but included in the overall downtime total. In the USA, where much of the world’s fluff pulp capacity is located, three producers took downtime in the grade, included in softwood totals.

Pulp mill downtime also surged across Asia, where tepid demand and tumbling prices prompted several major mills to shut down for months at a time, resulting in 785,000 tonnes of mostly bleached hardwood kraft getting clipped.

In Europe, producers reduced about 360,000 tonnes of pulp production with much of it occurring in northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK).

Latin American producers took the least downtime of the four continents polled, with an estimated 193,000 tonnes of mostly bleached eucalyptus getting trimmed.

Industry contacts expect more downtime to occur before the traditional season of spring maintenance outages because papermaker downtime is so widespread the pulp producer curtailments haven’t yet eaten into the oversupply that’s gripping the industry.

For the latest update of worldwide pulp downtime, see www.risiinfo.com/portal/content/pulpDowntime.xls.

Tags: ,
Comment