Metso cutting 44 jobs from minerals division in Finland

Metso cutting 44 jobs from minerals division in Finland

Metso is is attempting to streamline its business to drive growth and weather the downturn in the mining industry.

Finland-based supplier Metso, which last year decided to put its mining division in the back burner due to weak sales, said Monday it is cutting 44 positions after concluding negotiations with employees from its minerals business.

The company, which is attempting to streamline its business to drive growth and weather the downturn in the mining industry, said the original estimated number of lay-offs before the negotiations was approximately 75 jobs.

The cuts follow a number of reductions announced for the U.S. and Canada last year.

Metso said it would also continue temporary lay-offs in its Minerals division in Finland during 2016. The number and duration of the temporary lay-offs will depend on the workload and the volume of orders received, the company noted.

The company said it was helping those affected by the lay-offs through its employment support program, which offers assistance with re-employment and possible relocation support.

Metso is in the midst of a major restructuring that aims to switch the company’s emphasis from mining equipment manufacturing to sales of services and flow-control equipment, which together account for roughly 85% of its revenue.

The Finnish company is not the only one suffering the impacts of spending cuts among miners in the last three years. Its peers in a Nordic cluster of mining gear suppliers, including Sweden’s Atlas Corp., Sandvik, and Denmark’s FLSmidth have also been squeezed by it.