The global crisis forces Aalborg Industries to reduce its staff despite an increased market share in the global marine boiler market

8 September 2009

The international financial crisis has reduced the number of new ships contracted by more than 85% compared to the same period last year, and this makes Aalborg Industries react on the expected drop in boiler orders.

Even though Aalborg Industries has increased its market share meaning that more than 50% of all ships built in the world are equipped with a Aalborg-based boiler plant, the significant drop in the shipbuilding industry makes the global group reduce its staff.

The situation is that only 156 ships (above 2,000 dwt) have been ordered up till end August this year, whereas 1,434 ships were contracted in the same period in 2008. This means a reduction of more than 85%.

Concurrently, the global financial crisis has resulted in many cancellations of orders within the shipbuilding industry, which has implied a decrease in the present order book corresponding to a total value of DKK 400m.

Consequently, it must be expected that 2010 and 2011 will be at a lower level of activity in the whole Aalborg Industries Group. The Executive Management has therefore informed the employees in Aalborg about a planned reduction of the staff of about 100 employees in the parent company in Denmark, corresponding to 17% of the Danish workforce.

Jan Vestergaard Olsen, President/CEO states, ‘It is very aggravating to say goodbye to so many skilled and competent employees. But we do not have any alternatives when the market potential is changing that dramatically as we have seen during the last six months’.

‘We must realise that an economic crisis of this dimension and the effect it has had on our customers cannot be influenced by Aalborg Industries, and we are therefore compelled to react on the conditions we have from the market and our surroundings’.

‘We do, however, have substantiated expectations to a rising level of activity in the Aalborg Industries Group when the crisis eases. Besides, we have still great expectations to a considerable demand within our new green products, when the environmental regulations for the shipping industry are finally implemented on a global basis. We do, however, not assess that this will happen within the coming year, and therefore we are forced to react now.’

For further information regarding this press release, please contact:

Aalborg Industries A/S, Denmark, Mr Jan Vestergaard Olsen, President/CEO, tel. +45 99 30 40 00.

Press release in English/WORD, PDF

Pressemeddelelse på dansk/WORD (in Danish), PDF

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About Aalborg Industries:

Aalborg Industries is an international group with subsidiaries in Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Dubai, Singapore, Japan, China, Korea, Brazil, Vietnam, Australia and the USA. A network of agents support the sales activities. The revenue outside Denmark amounts to 95%.

Production of the Group’s products takes place at its own factories in Denmark, China, Brazil and  Vietnam as well as at selected external outsourcing partners. The number of employees in 2008 totals about 2,700.