Sandvik Materials Technology, which is part of the Sandvik Group, has announced that it has commenced discussions with Swedish unions to remodel its wire and resistance strip operations in order to focus more on profitable products in vital segments like the energy industry.
Towards this effort, the company plans to discontinue production of wire products that are not profitable, at its facility in Hallstahammar, Sweden. Production of other wire products will be carried out at the company’s facilities in Sandviken and wire-drawing plants in China and India. Resistance strip production which is presently done in Hallstahammar will also be moved to Sandviken in the future so that the production of resistance strips is centralised into one location.
As a result of this remodelling, the number of employees at Hallstahammar will be reduced by 100 over the next one and a half years. During the last quarter of 2011, the company also decided to stop the production of die cutting products and springs in England and China, respectively. The number of employees and the production occurring from these plants will be consolidated to the Sandvik unit.
All of the restructuring that has been announced is part of the Step Change Program which was announced by Sandvik Materials Technology earlier which is aimed at increasing and stabilising the profitability of the company.