KCI Konecranes will cut 200 jobs and focus on internal efficiencies.

The plan, announced with Konecranes' first half results on August 7, includes further consolidation of production facilities in Europe. President Stig Gustavson said the job losses would not affect production capacity. Restructuring has already cost the company EUR7 million (USD7.9 million) in the first half.

Konecranes' policy had been to introduce global product ranges at a slow pace, safeguarding market shares, Mr Gustavson said. But high market acceptance of its modern products and a lack of market recovery had spurred the company to quicken the pace.

Konecranes' Frankfurt operations, and other European facilities still to be identified, will be closed. The workforce would be trimmed in Finland, but Chinese component operations would be ramped up.

Konecranes said there was no market recovery in sight. Sales in all business areas, except internal sales, suffered, and total sales for the half, at EUR312.5 million (USD353.2 million) were down 9.9% compared to EUR346.8 million (USD392 million) last year. Orders received closed at EUR298.7 million (USD337.7 million), down 8.7% from EUR327.3 million (USD370 million) posted in the first half of 2002.

Sales in Europe fell 13.4% from EUR188.1 million (USD212.6 million) to EUR162.9 million (USD184.1 million) compared to the first half of 2002. Business in America was stable. Only the Asia-Pacific operations saw a noticeable upswing.

Comparing results for July 2002-June 2003 with July 2001-June 2002, this year's sales, at EUR679.3 million (USD767.9 million), were down 8.8% from EUR744.7 million (USD841.8 million). Orders received fell 10.3% to EUR570.3 million (USD644.7 million) from EUR636.1 million (USD719 million) in 2002.