Interview: Andritz will cut 500 more jobs and hopes for a hydro boom
Joachim Schoenbeck, the chief executive of Andritz's German subsidiary?Schuler, said in an interview that they will be cutting 500 more jobs at their German unit this year due to a weak automotive industry demand.
Schoenbeck stated that additional?restructuring?is needed "particularly at Schuler" and in Germany, where Schoenbeck expects non-core areas like toolmaking to be discontinued despite the increasing profitability of the subsidiary.
He said: "We are not where we would like to be, and we need to at least be where our shareholders want us to be." Andritz supplies the struggling automotive industry with metal forming equipment and battery production. It has reduced more than 2,000 jobs over the last five years, as part of its restructuring programme to increase profitability.
Schoenbeck hopes for an improvement in the market towards the end of this year or early 2027.
He believes that Europe will eventually adopt electric mobility, once the cost of vehicles is reduced and range problems are solved. Schoenbeck, however, called for lower electric prices, less bureaucracy, and a greater trust in the market to replace government-funded subsidies.
BOOM IN HYDROPOWER BUSINESS
The Austrian firm, which supplies pulp, paper, and metal industries as well as hydroelectric power plants and clean energy, anticipates that its hydropower segment, driven by the?rising demand for electricity?as data centres continue to be built, will see the most growth.
Schoenbeck stated that the transition to renewable energy and decarbonisation of the economy was a trend "where the paths are not always straight", but is irreversible. Schoenbeck also sees growth for the pulp and paper sector, where the "green potential" has yet to fully emerge.
The chief executive stated that "the rampant protectionism which is currently being fueled by all countries represents the greatest risk to the business model." (Reporting and writing by Alexandra Schwarz Goerlich; editing by Linda Pasquini, Kevin Liffey and Danny Callaghan)
(source: Reuters)
