12/01/2009
CERATIZIT Schweiz AG in Biel (Switzerland) is planning to move the production of carbide blanks to the Horb (Germany) and Mamer (Luxembourg) sites and is able to keep the precision grinding department in the present crisis.
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Due to the drastic changes in the world economy the demand for carbide blanks has dropped throughout the world. At the CERATIZIT plant in Biel, Switzerland, the number of incoming orders has decreased by 30% during the last six months. A recovery is not to be expected in the near future. The exception to this development is the precision grinding department for carbide components..
Jacques Lanners, Speaker of the CERATIZIT Board: “The current economic situation forces us to implement changes at many European sites and to reduce costs and personnel. Despite a reduced number of incoming orders, we have to be ideally positioned in order to be able to offer a reliable and quick service to our business partners“.
The production of carbide blanks includes the critical sintering process in large sinter furnaces which are loaded with various different carbide grades at a time. When the production of carbide blanks has a sub-critical size, the sinter furnaces can no longer be loaded continuously. The insufficient workload in a carbide production department is therefore both uneconomic and slow.
The carbide production department at CERATIZIT Schweiz AG in Biel, Switzerland, is sub-critical and thus not profitable. For this reason the plan is to close this production unit where approximately 60 people are employed. They will be assisted by a job centre.
CERATIZIT Schweiz AG, formerly known under the name ’Bidurit’, has a total of 130 employees and develops carbide blanks and ready-for-use parts working closely together with the industry. The company is an independent production plant including sales and business unit and was integrated into the CERATIZIT group in 2002. The roots of the Biel plant go back to the ‘Vereinigte Drahtwerke’ company.
“Closing a department is the last decision we take“, says Lanners. “However, we measure all production sites using the same criteria. Unfortunately the utilization of the sinter furnaces for carbide blanks at the Switzerland site is not sufficient to be profitable. The investments of over five million Swiss Francs we have made in the past three years could not alleviate the situation. We are extremely sorry that we will have to shut down this unit, especially as CERATIZIT Schweiz AG has substantially added to the Group’s identity.”
Other departments and business sectors in Biel are not affected.
The plan is to move only the production of carbide blanks to the sites of Horb and Mamer.
The other departments of CERATIZIT Schweiz (Switzerland sales, business segment, production of WO3 and the finishing & grinding department) are not affected.
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