KBA plans reduced production at web press factories in January

Würzburg, Germany—The financial crisis is impacting severely on Germany’s export-driven engineering industry, and Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) is no exception. As the third-quarter figures issued on 14 November revealed, tumbling demand in key export markets caused the volume of new orders for sheetfed presses to fall 15.8% below the equivalent figure for 2007, while orders for web and special presses were 9.1% down on a weak prior year. The volume of orders on hand shrank by €160m to €721.6m, and this has caused major fluctuations in plant utilization since the beginning of October. As a countermeasure, overtime and holiday accounts are being run down at KBA’s web press production plants, and the Christmas closure extended. As was also announced on 14 November, KBA’s sheetfed facility, which officially introduced short-time work at the beginning of November, is having to trim its payroll by 400.