Moventas has today completed its co-operation negotiations in Jyväskylä, Finland.

Moventas adjusts its wind gear production according to the European market situation and demand of the next few years. The biggest future growth is weighted towards North America and Asia.

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The negotiations resulted in the reduction of 150 man years in Jyväskylä, of which 90 are redundancies. As a result of negotiating, the reductions include retirements and other arrangements as well as outsourcing of a tooling unit, separate of the main factories.

Moventas will offer more than statutory help in the redeployment of those made redundant. After the closing of the negotiations, redundant employees in Jyväskylä may also find employment with Moventas’ Industrial Gears division’s Karkkila factory, where the growing business currently needs nearly 20 new professionals.

– Our Wind Gears division, facing the biggest growth expectations, still suffers from the globally slow financial and political decision-making. Also, the temporarily low demand of alternative energy forms in the USA affects the industry’s capacity needs. Our other two divisions, Industrial Gears and especially Service, have returned to a growth path after the recession, currently bringing in total over half of our turnover, comments Moventas CEO & President Jukka Jäämaa .

In the future, Moventas will maintain the main functions of wind gear production in Jyväskylä: R&D, key component manufacturing for the global manufacturing network and gear manufacturing for the European market as a whole. Moventas has strongly invested in these functions in the recent years, and the Jyväskylä factories are very competitive; certain key processes’ productivity has grown as much as 50%. According to the wide clientele and its demands, assembly and testing will be moved to North America and Asia, where long term estimates predict the strongest growth of wind power production. Moventas recently announced that it will open an assembly line in Portland, USA.

The reductions now being made concern all employee groups. After the reductions, Moventas employs 540 people in Jyväskylä and a total of 1,050 worldwide. Based on the short-term market outlook of the wind power industry and its clientele, Moventas will also continue the temporary layoffs of its Jyväskylä staff in 2011.

Further information: CEO & President Jukka Jäämaa, Moventas Oy, tel. +358 50 526 7665 / jukka.jaamaa@moventas.com.

Moventas is one of the largest manufacturers of wind turbine gears in the world. The company also manufactures power transmission solutions for industry use and provides services for their overhaul and maintenance. Majority of the products’ end use is connected with renewable energy. In 2009 Moventas generated net sales of EUR 237 million. The company has 1 200 employees in nine countries globally with a worldwide partner network. European private equity investor IK Investment Partners holds the majority of the shares in Moventas. www.moventas.com