Romania's VAE Apcarom To Send on Forced Leave More than Half of Staff by End-2009

The local railroad market is in decline, which makes it impossible for the company to operate at full capacity, VAE Apcarom said in a statement.

VAE Apcarom will send between 50% and 100% of its employees on forced leave for different periods of time in November and December, and will start working at full capacity in January next year. The company employed 244 at the end of June.

VAE Apcarom is based in Buzau, southeastern Romania. Austrian railroad equipment manufacturer VAE, part of steelmaker Voestalpine, owned 91.8% of VAE Apcarom at the end of 2008 while the remainder was in the hands of various small shareholders.

The company's shares closed unchanged at 0.56 lei on Monday on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.