HS Timber Group: Reduction of production capacities in Rădăuți/Romania

• Reduction of production capacities in the glulam plant in Rădăuți as of 1 April 2023
• The remaining two shifts will continue to produce glulam for house construction in Asia

HS Timber Group announces that the production capacities of posts and beams (glulam products for house construction in Asia) at the Rădăuți/Romania site is expected to be reduced by one third starting 1 April 2023.

The production capacity reduction will affect up to 160 employees at the Rădăuți site.

The company is endeavouring to offer many of them continued employment within the Romanian group. In the other cases, efforts are being made to keep the social impact as low as possible. Already in January 2022, the restructuring of the group's operations in the Romanian region of Suceava became necessary at the end of the first quarter of 2022.

The reasons for the reduction of production capacities at the Rădăuți site are - as they have been in 2022 - unfavourable location factors. The purchase of Romanian coniferous roundwood has been restricted by law for HS Timber Group since 2016. The neighbouring Ukraine and Russia are no longer raw material suppliers due to export bans in force there and acts of war. Outdated railway infrastructure in this region of Romania, as well as burdensome import regulations, make timber imports from other European Union states difficult. In addition, the production and marketing of green electricity is made more difficult.

HS Timber Group operates two sawmills and a blockboard factory at other locations in Romania. These are not affected by the reduction in production capacity.