Swiss Steel is set to scale back further in Germany. In an interview with the SonntagsZeitung, reported on 4 October 2026 by the Keystone-SDA news agency, the steel group’s chief executive, Frank Koch, announced a new restructuring affecting the German sites, which will mean further job cuts. He gave no figures.
What has been announced
According to Frank Koch’s reported remarks, the aim is to reorganise the production sites so that they become operationally profitable again, in a market he describes as having contracted sharply. The CEO also presents the measure as a way of making the group’s dependence on the German automotive industry “significantly lower again”.
He also mentions a balance-sheet restructuring as a further step. The company has not disclosed any details on this.
What the source does not say
At this stage, this is an announcement, not a costed plan. The dispatch does not specify:
- the number of jobs affected;
- which German sites are targeted;
- the timetable for the cuts;
- what form the balance-sheet restructuring would take, or its scale.
Nor does it provide any recent financial results that would make it possible to measure the gap between the group’s current situation and the profitability it is aiming for.
A group already cut in half
To put the announcement in context, Frank Koch says that Swiss Steel has already halved its workforce, from 13,000 to 6,500 employees. This figure comes from the chief executive himself; the source does not say over what period this reduction took place. The new cuts would therefore come on top of an already considerable decline, in a group that has lost half of its staff.
The share of the German automotive industry in the group’s business is not quantified in the dispatch. The phrase “significantly lower again” only indicates that this dependence was lower in the past; the dispatch does not allow us to say more.
Profitability targeted for 2028
“Our plan is to return to operating profitability from 2028,” said Frank Koch. This is a management target, not an achieved result: it assumes that the announced restructuring goes as planned and that the market does not deteriorate further. By then, he says, the company will be significantly smaller and more focused.
In other words, the group does not expect to return to operating profitability before 2028, despite an already massive reduction in headcount. This is probably the most telling indication in the interview of Swiss Steel’s situation.
The industry context
Swissinfo places this announcement within its coverage of the crisis in the Swiss steel industry and recalls that, in April 2026, the European Union tightened its steel import rules, exposing the Swiss industry to higher EU tariffs. The dispatch does not, however, establish a direct link between these rules and Swiss Steel’s decision; in his reported remarks, Frank Koch mainly cites the market contraction and the dependence on the German automotive industry.
Note: the quotations were translated into French from the English version of the dispatch, itself translated from German.
