German steelmaker Salzgitter to axe 1500 jobs

Salzgitter, Germany's second-biggest steel maker, said on Wednesday it plans to axe more than 1,500 jobs by the end of 2015 as it plunged deeper into the red. "In order to achieve an acceptable level of performance also under difficult general conditions in the markets and competitive arena," the company has launched a restructuring programme under the name of "Salzgitter AG 2015", it said in a statement. Salzgitter said it has identified an overall profit improvement potential of more than 200 million euros ($265 million) each year. "More than half of this amount is attributable to the further development of technical processes and initiatives in the areas of logistics, procurement and data processing, along with reducing personnel through downsizing more than 1,500 positions," it said. Salzgitter did not say where the jobs would be cut. As of June 30, the group's total workforce amounted to 25,272. The group revealed it plunged deeper into the red in the first six months of the current year when it ran up net loss of 315.2 million euros compared with a loss of 22.5 million euros a year earlier.