Outokumpu has stated in the outlook of its third quarter interim report, that the stainless steel demand is currently weak and the company expects its fourth quarter delivery volumes to be at about the same level or slightly above the volumes in the third quarter, which is clearly below the company’s full production capacity. Due to the currently low order load, Outokumpu will start statutory negotiations on temporary layoffs at the Tornio plant in Finland. The layoffs would apply to selected production lines, maintenance and to some office work. Altogether the negotiations concern full or part-time layoff of a total of 1500 employees. The layoffs would be carried out mainly by reducing shifts depending on the production line and duties and they would continue for a maximum of three months. The statutory negotiations are expected to take until 24 November 2008. Outokumpu’s production sites in other countries are taking similar actions to adjust their operations to reflect customer order volumes. In Sweden several sites are already taking measures, for example by reducing shifts.
