German PVC stabilizer maker IKA has revealed that, due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the company's exports to the Ukrainian market are expected to fall by about 50 percent this year, and its sales in Russia are set to decrease by a further 30 percent.
As the two markets generate about two-thirds of the firm's revenues, this is likely to cause lay-offs in 2015, according to the company's chief executive.
“If the situation remains the same we will have to move from a three shift to two shift operation,” Reinhard Beck, CEO of IKA, told the Financial Times. “Our assumption is we'll have to talk about redundancies in the new year.”
The German company had sales of 35 million euros ($43.4 million) in 2013.
Beck said that IKA's Ukraine-based customers are having difficulties converting local currency into euros with the aim of purchasing imported products. Meanwhile, the decline of the Russian ruble makes the firm's products very expensive for potential customers in Russia, according to IKA's chief executive.
The company is headquartered in Wolfen, close to the German city of Leipzig, in the country's east, and its production facility is ISO 9001 and 14001 certified, according to data released by IKA.
