HELSINKI, Finland Nokian Tyres has announced that negotiations will begin Nov. 25 at its Nokia car tire production plant to adjust the production to meet current market realities. The company says it is hoping to adjust the utilization of the production capacity and create cost savings.
The agenda of the negotiations includes planned production downtime, possible changes in shift manning and productivity improvement measures. Nokian said possible adjustments will be accomplished with temporary layoffs during the end of 2014 and in 2015. The negotiations concern approximately 570 workers and staff in the production, maintenance and quality departments at Nokia plant. Possible personnel cuts will amount to a maximum of nine people, the company said.
In April, Nokian Tyres had already downgraded its financial outlook for 2014 due to the weakened economic outlook in Russia and CIS countries. Estimates for car and car tire sales have continued to decline in these areas. However, the company says it continues to estimate sales growth in its western markets in 2014.