Norwegian division of the French cable giant Nexans is downsizing its workforce at the company’s plant in Halden as it reacts to market slowdown.

The Halden factory, which currently has approximately 900 employees, had to let go 90 workers, after temporarily putting them on hold in January.

According to Nexans Norway spokepserson, the job cuts are result of the company’s adjustment to the current situation in the oil industry and decline in the offshore wind market activity:

“As a supplier to the oil & gas industry, Nexans is impacted by the considerable uncertainty in the oil industry. In addition we have seen postponements in the offshore wind market. We have had 90 people on temporary layoffs for a 6-month period since January this year. Activity levels have not improved and we have therefore notified a manning reduction of 90 operators in the Halden plant,” said Trude Larstad, Nexans Norway Communications Manager.

Furthermore, the company announced additional redundancies of 25 workers at Halden from July.

“We must also temporary lay off 25 operators with effect from July this year. We are the first to regret this, but as the situation is now, we do not have enough work for everyone at the plant. We have worked hard to improve the situation, however, in order to continue to be a robust employer and business partner in the future, we must adapt our capacity to the actual marked situation,” Larstad said.

The Halden plant, specializing in submarine power cables, interplatform cables and umbilicals for the offshore industry, delivered some of the Nexans’ major projects in the past and it’s scheduled to design and manufacture two 525 kV cable subsystems, with a total length of more than 700 km, for the NordLink project, Nexans’ largest of this type to date.

Subsea World News Staff