The Austrian steel group supplies well-known vehicle manufacturers. But demand is declining. Hundreds of employees in Germany are affected.
Due to falling demand from the automotive industry, the Austrian steel group Voestalpine is closing a factory in Rhineland-Palatinate. Around 220 employees at the Birkenfeld location are affected by the move, the company announced. Voestalpine also announced possible staff cuts of a similar magnitude in Dettingen in Baden-Württemberg.
These steps are part of a reorganization of Voestalpine’s five vehicle parts locations with a total of around 2,000 jobs in Germany. The four remaining plants should “focus on selected core technologies,” it said.
Ready-to-install steel and aluminum parts for car production are manufactured in Birkenfeld. The company had sales of around 50 million euros in the 2023/24 financial year, but according to the group, the results have ultimately been negative in recent years.
In the future, the plant in Dettingen in Baden-Württemberg will primarily produce assemblies for automobile manufacturers. Metal parts and safety components for vehicles are currently also manufactured there. According to Voestalpine, a third of the 650 employees could be affected by this step. The company announced discussions with IG Metall and works councils about socially acceptable solutions in Birkenfeld and Dettingen.
On Monday, Voestalpine lowered its forecast for annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization from 1.7 to 1.4 billion euros. The reasons given included the costs of the reorganization in Germany, as well as the devaluation of the German subsidiary Buderus Edelstahl in Wetzlar, which the group wants to sell.