It is estimated that some INTERSCHALT’s production and design work will be discontinued or outsourced and some INTERSCHALT locations will be closed.

Cooperation negotiations have started at INTERSCHALT and they will affect tens of employees. INTERSCHALT employs at the moment 223 persons. Some employees will be offered a transfer to another location within Kalmar or MacGregor. The aim is to finalize negotiations by the end of 2016 and the resulting changes will be completed during 2017. The savings resulting of these activities are expected to amount to approximately EUR two million annually from 2017 onwards.

Cargotec’s acquisition of INTERSCHALT was announced in January 2016 and it was completed in March 2016. Since then, the INTERSCHALT software business has been consolidated into Kalmar’s software business unit Navis and INTERSCHALT services business has been consolidated into MacGregor business area.

Synergies and overlapping activities have been further investigated in the context of the business environment. “In order to maintain profitability and to ensure effective and consistent operational processes, consolidation is needed in terms of locations, personnel and product portfolio,” says Patrik Sjöblom from Kalmar finance.

“We understand that this is challenging times for INTERSCHALT’s personnel. However, we must make sure that we continue to sustain our leading position also in the future by being able to invest in product development,” Patrik Sjöblom continues.

In this transaction, Konecranes sold 5,873,900 Kito shares to Kito. After this transaction, Konecranes owns 76,100 Kito shares.
Konecranes will receive approximately EUR 48 million from the sale of the shares and it will book a capital gain of approximately EUR 6 million as an associated company item in its January-September 2016 interim results.

ESPO welcomes that EU funded port investments are audited. European port authorities strongly support cost-efficiency for both public and private investments and believes that a thorough ex-ante and ex-post analysis of how EU funds have been spent will ensure that maximum value is gained from scarce EU funds invested in the port sector.

“A first reading of this report illustrates once again the importance of well-thought off investments, setting priorities and reducing the administrative burden. It also points out how investments in ports have to be accompanied by adequate hinterland links to have full added value,” says ESPO’s Secretary General, Isabelle Ryckbost in a first reaction to the publication.

Looking at the scope of the audit, ESPO’s Secretary General points out: “This audit report covers essentially port investments which received EU Regional or Cohesion grants initiated under the previous financial and legislative framework. It would be inappropriate to use this audit to put the new TEN-T policy into question, considering that the first projects under this framework are not the subject of this audit and they are not completed yet. Moreover, changing the fundamentals of Europe’s Transport Infrastructure plan after only two years of starting its implementation would be completely irresponsible.” ESPO and its members will examine the report and its recommendations in detail in the weeks to come.

For ESPO, it is important to take into account the complexity of the European port sector, when assessing the value for money of port investments. As a matter of fact, Europe’s seaport sector is extensive, complex and faces many challenges not least of which is the provision of long-term capacity for future growth.

Large port projects often generate only a very limited financial return for the port authorities. However, they generate an important economic return by benefiting supply chains and the economy as a whole. Financing such projects is a challenge. Moreover, implementing large port projects requires a wide range of permits at member state and regional levels and these can often result in long pre-construction lead times. These considerations will have to be taken into account when assessing “cost overruns”, “delays” and “short-term under capacity”.

Overall, European seaports believe that the continued availability of funding for port projects from the European Commission and from the European Investment Bank is essential if Europe’s ports are to continue to fulfil their essential role in facilitating trade and the movement of Europe’s citizens. In that respect, ESPO is a full supporter of the current TEN-T legislative framework, following which port investments can only receive grants if they are in line with the objectives of Europe’s transport policy and contribute to the completion of a sustainable and efficient Trans-European Transport network. Regional funding schemes should also be in line with these objectives.