SSAB starts talks for temporary lay offs in Finland

Sweden’s high-strength steel producer SSAB Monday started negotiations with unions for potential temporary lay-offs at its Finnish operations, excluding Lappohja tube mill and the subsidiaries Ruukki Construction, Tibnor, Raahen Voima and Presteel, the company told S&P Global Platts.

The biggest sites in Finland are in Raahe and Hämeenlinna which belong to SSAB Europe division, but there are also some smaller units included in SSAB Europe division as well as Group functions. All together some 4,000 employees work at these units. The initiative is due to a reduction in production volumes at the Nordic operations.

It will be decided during the negotiations how many people are to be affected and how long the lay-offs will be for. The results will be published after the negotiations.

Lappohja tube mill is to be closed -a decision made earlier by the company- and its production will be transferred to Hämeenlinna tube mill.

Tibnor negotiations are also going on but will last 6 weeks and the end result will be announced after the negotiations. Tibnor is the steel distributor.

— Annalisa Villa