Service center cutbacks said likely to be permanent

Jun 24, 2009 | 11:30 AM | Corinna Petry

Many of the cost-cutting measures taken by service centers over the past six to nine months—layoffs and reduced management salaries—are likely to become permanent, two metal distributors said in a brutally honest exchange on the sidelines at AMM's and World Steel Dynamics Inc.'s Steel Survival Strategies XXIV conference in New York.

"This is akin to the Great Depression," an East Coast distributor said, "and we are learning that we can run our business leaner from a personnel standpoint. We expect the cutbacks will be permanent as we learn to do the same or more with fewer resources, reduce our debt and take greater care with our spending."....





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