Cost cutting and capacity reduction at IHC Holland N.V.

IHC Holland N.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of IHC Caland N.V. has decided to structurally reduce its cost levels in order to improve its competitive position. In certain activities it will also reduce capacity in order to match market demand. This will lead to a total reduction of 151 positions.

A significant proportion of the manpower reduction will be realised by not filling vacancies, by terminating temporary employment contracts and by making maximum use of early retirement possibilities but unfortunately a forced redundancy plan for 48 employees cannot be avoided. The intended measures and a social plan are being discussed with the unions and the works council. The associated costs will be met from a reorganization provision already included in the 2004 budget of IHC Holland and will therefore have no effect on the IHC Caland year-end profit forecast.

Corporate Profile

IHC Caland, supplier of equipment for the offshore oilfield service, dredging and shipping industries.

The Dutch public company IHC Caland N.V. is the holding company of a group of international, marine technology orientated companies. Its business is to serve on a global basis the offshore oilfield service industry and the dredging, shipping and mining industries by supplying engineered products, vessels, and systems and offshore oil and gas production services.

The product line comprises:

for the oil and gas sector: Offshore import/export terminals for crude oil, refined products, LPG and LNG, mostly based on the single point principle, Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) systems and other floating production facilities based on ship hulls, semi-submersibles and Tension Leg Platforms (TLP’s). Offshore oil and gas production services through FPSO's, owned and operated by the Group.
Offshore construction and installation contracting services.

Special designs and engineering services, and delivery of specific hardware components for dynamically positioned drillships, jack-up drilling platforms, jack-up platforms, including for civil construction, large capacity offshore cranes, elevating and lifting systems, semi-submersible crane vessels and other specialised work vessels.

for the dredging and shipping sector: custom-built and standard dredgers, dredge components including automation systems, spare parts and mining equipment, custom-built ships such as Ro-Pax ferries, cablelayers, offshore support vessels and more recently luxury yachts and river cruise vessels, as well as hydraulic piling hammers (IHC Hydrohammers) and heavy duty skidding systems for the offshore and on-land construction industry.

Source : ihc