Friday, April 20, 2007

Steel industry investment moving East?

The Prague Daily Monitor today reports that 1000 layoffs are planned later this year in the Czech steel sector at Mittal Steel Ostrava (see http://launch.praguemonitor.com/en/69/czech_business/5200/). The same report makes mention also of the manning reductions planned in the Polish steel sector, where 2500 jobs are to be shed later this year.

Simultaneously, we read in today's Spiegel Online about the current labour dispute at Skoda (http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,478052,00.html), which is all about wages at the Czech auto maker and wage differentials with car manufacturers in Western Europe.

But as noted by Spiegel Online, Central Europe is increasingly witnessing cases of potential investment moving further East to countries such as the Ukraine, where labour costs are cheaper still. Whilst Central Europe still has a long way to go in attaining German labour cost levels, workers should remember ... investors always have a choice.

blogger@steelonthenet.com

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