The company Thyssenkrupp Galmed (tkGalmed) has announced that it is closing its Sagunt plant, as announced this afternoon by Levante-EMV and confirmed by various media. In a statement signed by the company's CEO, Tiago Vieira, and sent this Friday to the staff, the person in charge communicates a decision that "is not easy for us" and that he "regrets" communicating the closure of the galvanizing line.
Likewise, the text explains that the company "is in talks" with PowerCO, the company that will build the Sagunt gigafactory, to identify employment "possibilities." "We have reached a consensus that the qualifications of tkGalmed's staff are very interesting for the existing vacancies in the gigafactory," reads the text signed by Vieira.
The unions are currently analyzing the effects of the news, which has fallen like a bucket of cold water on the workforce. "Nobody expected it," explains Sergio Villalba, head of CCOO-PV at Camp de Morvedre. There are around 300 jobs at stake, both direct (120) and indirect. Likewise, the union considers that the company's mention of PowerCo is "wet paper." Villaba advances that the union's first intention is to fight to keep the plant open. In 2013, the company closed the factory and in 2016 it reopened, a triumph that Villalba attributes to the workforce.
The company also announces in its letter that in the coming weeks viable solutions will be developed for all employees, with a "marked social aspect." They point out that conversations with the works council will begin in Sagunt "immediately."
Just this week, the German industrial group reported that it recorded losses of 2,072 million euros at the end of its fiscal year, compared to the profits of 1,136 million euros recorded in the previous year, according to the company, which assumes an adverse impact of 2,100 million due to the deterioration in the value of its steel business in Europe ('Steel Europe').
"This was due to the higher cost of capital and the implications of increasingly bleak profit expectations in the short, medium and long term in the context of the economic situation and structural changes specific to the steel industry," the multinational explained.
The volume of orders accumulated in the year by the German company reached 37,060 million euros, a decline of 16.2% in relation to the previous year, while sales totaled 37,536 million euros, 8.7% less, and an adjusted operating result (Ebit) of 703 million euros, 66% less. In the fourth quarter of its fiscal year, Thyssenkrupp suffered losses of 2,008 million euros, compared to profits of 389 million in the same period of the previous year.
"The figures show that we have made progress in the transformation of Thyssenkrupp, despite the difficult environment, but also that we must continue to work hard to improve the performance of our businesses," said Miguel López, CEO of Thyssenkrupp.
