Jungheinrich AG's board of management will present a comprehensive package of measures to counter the declining global forklift market at an EGM next month.

The group released a statement this week saying the measures were designed to return the company to profitability from 2010 onwards.

In addition to the 300 layoffs implemented at the German production sites early this year, about 500 more jobs will be cut, to adapt Jungheinrich's plants to the market's long-term requirements, the statement says.
About 400 sales employees, mainly outside Germany and 150 employees in Germany and abroad will be affected by the restructuring.

Jungheinrich says the world market is likely to decline by about 40% to 520,000 forklifts in 2009 compared to 872,000 forklifts in 2008. It does not expect the market to recover before the second half of 2010.

Jungheinrich's EBIT is expected to drop to -EUR15 million (-USD21.1 million) in the first half of 2009 compared to EUR63.5 million (USD90.1 million) the previous year. The group anticipates its EBIT to drop significantly by the end of the year due to the rising share of sales accounted for by small forklifts and the increasing pressure on the prices of incoming orders.

"Additional one-off costs resulting from the structural adjustment measures will cause EBIT for 2009 to be in high negative double-digit million euro territory," says head of corporate communications Markus Piazza.

An interim report published on 13 August will provide details on the company's business performance in the first half of 2009.