Swiss Steel is in crisis. The group is now cutting hundreds of jobs in Switzerland and abroad.
The Swiss Steel production site in Emmenbrücke in the canton of Lucerne.
Urs Flüeler / Keystone
obe. Swiss Steel is cutting 800 full-time positions at home and abroad, the company announced on Friday. It was said that the group is adjusting its capacities due to the economic conditions and weak demand. With these measures, Swiss Steel wants to secure the production sites in Switzerland, Germany and France.
The job cuts are already being planned. 530 full-time positions would be cut and 270 positions would be adjusted by reducing weekly working hours. The group will reduce the number of employees to less than 7,000 in the first half of 2025. The adjustments would complement the ongoing strategy and restructuring program, it said.
As Swiss Steel writes, 130 of the current 750 jobs will be cut at the headquarters in Emmenbrücke. It was said that jobs would be cut in both administrative areas and production. The natural fluctuation will not be enough for this. Swiss Steel expects 80 layoffs in Emmenbrücke.
Business had been bad at Swiss Steel for a long time. It depends heavily on the prosperity of industry and especially the automotive sector in Germany. But only a few orders came from the automotive industry in the first half of 2024. Mechanical and plant manufacturers, who themselves are suffering from the lack of orders, also ordered fewer than in the previous year. Business with customers in Germany collapsed by 18 percent to 510 million in the first half of 2024, and Swiss Steel recorded a drop in sales of a quarter.
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