Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

BUSINESS

Lufthansa cuts 3,500 jobs to reduce costs

Germany's top airline Lufthansa said on Thursday that it intended to shed 3,500 administrative jobs in the next few years as part of a radical cost-cutting programme.

Published: 3 May 2012 09:31 CEST
Lufthansa cuts 3,500 jobs to reduce costs
Photo: DPA

The deep cuts were intended to reduce administrative costs by a quarter, the airline said in a statement.

Cuts in staff costs overall would amount to about a third of the savings under the cost-cutting scheme announced at the beginning of the year, it added.

The German giant is undergoing an overhaul in the wake of fierce competition from budget airlines and said in February it aims to save €1.5 billion by 2014.

“We can only safeguard jobs for the long term and create new openings if we reorganise the administrative functions and accept job losses now,” Christoph Franz, its chief executive, said in a written statement.

On Wednesday, the group said it suffered a net loss in the first quarter of 2012 as the soaring price of jet fuel more than offset a rise in passenger numbers.

The company posted a net loss of €397 million in the first three months of the year, more than the €336 million expected by analysts polled by Dow Jones News.

AFP/jcw

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

ENVIRONMENT

Sweden’s SSAB to build €4.5bn green steel plant in Luleå 

The Swedish steel giant SSAB has announced plans to build a new steel plant in Luleå for 52 billion kronor (€4.5 billion), with the new plant expected to produce 2.5 million tons of steel a year from 2028.

Published: 2 April 2024 13:44 CEST
Sweden's SSAB to build €4.5bn green steel plant in Luleå 

“The transformation of Luleå is a major step on our journey to fossil-free steel production,” the company’s chief executive, Martin Lindqvist, said in a press release. “We will remove seven percent of Sweden’s carbon dioxide emissions, strengthen our competitiveness and secure jobs with the most cost-effective and sustainable sheet metal production in Europe.”

The new mini-mill, which is expected to start production at the end of 2028 and to hit full capacity in 2029, will include two electric arc furnaces, advanced secondary metallurgy, a direct strip rolling mill to produce SSABs specialty products, and a cold rolling complex to develop premium products for the transport industry.

It will be fed partly from hydrogen reduced iron ore produced at the HYBRIT joint venture in Gälliväre and partly with scrap steel. The company hopes to receive its environemntal permits by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: 

The announcement comes just one week after SSAB revealed that it was seeking $500m in funding from the US government to develop a second HYBRIT manufacturing facility, using green hydrogen instead of fossil fuels to produce direct reduced iron and steel.

The company said it also hoped to expand capacity at SSAB’s steel mill in Montpelier, Iowa. 

The two new investment announcements strengthen the company’s claim to be the global pioneer in fossil-free steel.

It produced the world’s first sponge iron made with hydrogen instead of coke at its Hybrit pilot plant in Luleå in 2021. Gälliväre was chosen that same year as the site for the world’s first industrial scale plant using the technology. 

In 2023, SSAB announced it would transform its steel mill in Oxelösund to fossil-free production.

The company’s Raahe mill in Finland, which currently has new most advanced equipment, will be the last of the company’s big plants to shift away from blast furnaces. 

The steel industry currently produces 7 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, and shifting to hydrogen reduced steel and closing blast furnaces will reduce Sweden’s carbon emissions by 10 per cent and Finland’s by 7 per cent.

SHOW COMMENTS