Ponsse is preparing further adjustments to its Finnish operations as weak forest machinery demand puts pressure on factory utilisation and earnings. The move follows similar difficulties at John Deere Forestry, which recently opened talks over temporary layoffs in Finland.<\/p>\n
The Finnish manufacturer announced change negotiations on October 20 covering all 1,109 employees in Finland. The proposals include adjustments to production at its Vierem\u00e4 factory and possible temporary layoffs across personnel groups during 2027.<\/p>\n
Employees could be temporarily laid off, fully or partially, for up to 90 days. Permanent redundancies are not included in the negotiations, and subsidiary Epec is outside their scope.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe market situation is still challenging and demand is not at a sufficient level in relation to our production capacity,\u201d president and CEO Juho Nummela said.<\/p>\n
Ponsse said uncertainty and difficulties across the forest industry were continuing to weigh on machinery purchases. Its order backlog remains insufficient for its production capacity, while profitability has deteriorated. Customer support and services would continue during any temporary layoffs, Nummela added.<\/p>\n
Quarterly profit falls despite stronger orders<\/strong><\/p>\n The announcement accompanied a weaker third-quarter performance. Revenue fell 7.5% to EUR 159.8 million in July\u2013September, while operating profit declined 38.5% to EUR 5.9 million. The operating margin narrowed to 3.7%, from 5.6% a year earlier.<\/p>\n Order intake improved, however, rising 18.8% to EUR 170.4 million. The September-end order backlog reached EUR 170.5 million, up 4.5% from a year earlier and above the EUR 160 million reported at the end of June.<\/p>\n The improvement in orders has therefore not yet been enough to remove the need for production adjustments.<\/p>\n For January\u2013September, revenue declined 3.1% to EUR 513.7 million. Operating profit fell 39.1% to EUR 18.4 million, while orders received increased 7.5% to EUR 542.8 million. Ponsse maintained its 2026 profit guidance.<\/p>\n The company had returned Vierem\u00e4 to two-shift production in March. During the first half, it nevertheless reported substantially lower new-machine sales in Finland and Sweden, alongside delayed investment decisions among customers in the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n John Deere also considers temporary layoffs<\/strong><\/p>\n John Deere Forestry recently began negotiations covering 367 employees at its Joensuu factory, citing weaker forest machinery demand and a deteriorating order backlog.<\/p>\n Those talks concern possible temporary layoffs of up to 90 days and exclude salaried employees, senior salaried staff and retail personnel. No layoff decision had been announced in the information released.<\/p>\n The two manufacturers\u2019 proposals show how limited order visibility is affecting production planning in Finland. Ponsse is receiving more orders than a year ago, but its latest results show that sales and earnings remain under pressure.<\/p>\n Other Nordic machinery operations have also adjusted staffing. Komatsu Forest announced reductions affecting around 90 positions at its Ume\u00e5 factory in Sweden in August 2025, citing weaker orders and uncertainty over international trade. Those measures preceded the latest Finnish negotiations by more than a year.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ponsse is preparing further adjustments to its Finnish operations as weak forest machinery demand puts pressure on factory utilisation and earnings. The move follows similar difficulties at John Deere Forestry, which recently opened talks over temporary layoffs in Finland.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100341,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5812],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-trends"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n