Spanish stainless seamless tube maker Tubacex says it is implementing a series of urgent industrial reorganisation and cost-cutting measures to improve competitiveness. These include a -20% reduction in the workforce.
“Over the last few years Tubacex has continued its operations in a highly competitive environment marked by uncertainty,” Tubacex says in a note seen by Kallanish. “The negative evolution of the market, with a drop of 50% during the peak of the oil crisis, and the subsequent spread of coronavirus have driven the group to implement… urgent industrial reorganisation. The cost-cutting plan covers all the company’s areas and activities.”
The firm applied a pay cut in April to top-level management and a redundancy programme was initiated. When completed at the end of 2020, this will bring annual savings of €25 ($29m) million, Tubacex estimates.
The company has initiated a dialogue with workers’ representatives to overcome the difficult cost-cutting challenge and guarantee the continuity of business, it says.
The company confirms the current adverse circumstances will not alter its strategy focused on high value-added products, produced especially by the plants in Spain, Italy and Austria. It will transfer production of commercial-grade products to the more cost-competitive plants, based in Asia.
The group continues with its diversification strategy and growth in key regions, with new plants planned in Asia and America, and anticipates acquisitions of new companies.
