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Delphi to slash 11,500 jobs Auto parts supplier to trim 5 percent of work force TROY, Mich., March 29 — Delphi Automotive Systems, the world’s No. 1 auto parts supplier, said on Thursday it would slash 11,500 jobs, or 5 percent of its global work force.

THE COMPANY will also cut businesses generating about $900 million in annual revenues in a restructuring plan prompted in part by uncertainty over auto industry output. Troy, Mich.-based Delphi said it would sell, close or consolidate nine plants and cut workforces at more than 40 other facilities. The company also said it would take a charge in the first quarter of $400 million after taxes.

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2001

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Mar 29, 2001 - 01:24 PM

NS Group Cutting 300 Jobs, Cutting Back Steelmaking Operations The Associated Press

NEWPORT, Ky. (AP) - NS Group Inc. is cutting back steelmaking operations at Kentucky and Pennsylvania plants and is eliminating 380 jobs there, or 30 percent of the company's overall work force, management said Thursday. The company is restructuring because its operating costs are higher than those of competitors, market prices for steel coil are below costs of production and the market for steel bar products is weak, management said.

Wall Street greeted the news favorably, with NS Group stock rising $1.60 or 16.8 percent to $11.10 a share in midday trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

The moves will save NS Group $16 million to $18 million a year, said Rene Robichaud, the company's president and chief executive. The savings would increase earnings per share by about 80 cents a year, he said.

"These decisions are critical to NS Group's future," Robichaud said.

NS Group's board of directors approved decisions to stop manufacturing steel and hot rolled coils at its Newport Steel facility in Wilder, Ky., and to close the steel bar mill at the company's Koppel Steel mill in Koppel, Pa.

"We believe the steel and hotband manufacturing facilities we have, although good, cannot compete sucessfully against many larger domestic and international players," Robichaud said during a telephone conference Thursday.

Robichaud said the company will continue to focus on manufacturing products for oil and gas drilling.

Manufacturing of steel and hot rolled coils will end at Newport Steel within the next few days. Koppel Steel will cease its steel bar operations some time in June. Management plans to eliminate 300 jobs at Newport Steel and 80 positions at the Koppel mill.

NS Group has about 1,250 employees overall.

Most of the 65 hourly employees being laid off at Koppel will be able to transfer to jobs at the company's seamless tube making mill in Ambridge, Pa., NS Group spokeswoman Linda Pleiman said.

The restructuring will result in a charge of $54 million against earnings in the first quarter, which ends Saturday.

Because of the restructuring, NS Group now expects earnings for the quarter that ends June 30 to be between 35 cents and 40 cents per share. For all of 2001, earnings before the restructuring charge to be about $1.35 per share, Robichaud said.

"They aren't going to be bleeding cash anymore from the steelmaking," said Marshall Adkins, an analyst with Raymond James & Associates. "It's hard to compete when all your competitors' costs are $50 to $75 a ton less than yours are."

NS Group makes seamless and welded tubular steel products for drilling, exploration and transmission of oil and natural gas.

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On the Net:

NS Group site: http://www.nsgrouponline.com

AP-ES-03-29-01 1324EST © Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2001