The Swedish-owned maritime and industry equipment producer Alfa Laval has announced that it is laying off 90 employees in Aalborg and moving its manufacturing to China.
The outsourcing project – which began back in 1994 when the company established a branch in Qingdao – means the Aalborg department will remain the global development centre and will produce advanced solutions for environmental improvement in the maritime industry.
“The Aalborg manufacturing unit has performed well and contributed to the success of Alfa Laval and former Aalborg Industries,” Lars Renström, the head of Alfa Laval, said in a press release.
“However, shipbuilding is mainly located in China, South Korea and Japan, so from a cost and logistics perspective, it makes sense to concentrate the manufacturing of boilers, heaters and burners to an existing unit located in the same region as the customers.”
A global player
The financial impact of the move will be unveiled in late October in connection with the release of the company’s third quarter financial report. Alfa Laval had a turnover of about a billion kroner last year.
The company – which has customers in nearly 100 countries worldwide – employs about 16,000 employees globally, of which the majority are in Sweden, India, China, the US, France and Denmark.
Its operations in Aalborg currently employ 450 people.
