Wärtsilä cuts 600 jobs at Ship Power division

Wärtsilä said it was realigning the renamed Marine Solutions division cutting 600 staff out of its global workforce of 7,217. The company said the job losses would come from across all functions with 160 of the personnel coming from Finland. An unspecified number of jobs losses would come through retirements the company said.

Wärtsilä expects to save EUR40m a year through the staff cuts, with non-recurring restructuring costs of EUR25–30m.

"The marine industry has been slow in recovering from the global economic crisis and new shipbuilding contracting is weak. At the same time, the offshore oil & gas industry has been adversely affected by lower oil prices,” said Jaakko Eskola, president, Marine Solutions, and senior executive vice president, Wärtsilä.

“In addition, there are risks related to vessel owners negotiating extensions to existing delivery contracts. The combined impact of these developments has created a challenging market situation for the entire marine sector.”

The Finnish engine maker is the latest to cut staff in the marine sector, following 600 job losses at Rolls-Royce Marine and Cargotec laying-off 220 at MacGregor.