Wärtsilä announces end of Dutch production this year

The restructuring includes the closure of the propeller production in Drunen and component production in Zwolle. Adjusting the whole organisation to current market developments means 570 jobs to be lost in the Netherlands from a total of 1500, in keeping with an announcement made in January of this year. The entire restructuring of the company’s production will be finalised by the end of this year.

The future focus in the Netherlands will be on R&D and services. Wärtsilä will develop a Technology and Services Centre in the Drunen area, which will incorporate the Dutch training centre of Wärtsilä. This unit will employ approximately 300 persons.

In January Wärtsilä announced a plan to reduce its industrial footprint in Europe, with the target of reducing 1,400 jobs globally and transferring activities to China due to the evolution of market developments. Part of the global plan was the closure of the propeller facilities in Drunen and engine component production in Zwolle.

Various restructuring measures in other locations were carried out during the spring of this year. Temporary lay-offs are currently underway in Finland and Norway. In France Wärtsilä recently announced a plan to close the Mulhouse workshop and reduce the workforce by 116 jobs. Other readjustment programmes are ongoing in a number of countries globally.

Wärtsilä’s restructuring must be seen in the context of net sales last year which totalled €5.3bn. The company employs 18,000 globally and has operations in 160 locations in 70 countries around the world.