2024-01-23 21:01:01
The strength of the franc is weighing more and more on the Swiss export industry. Some companies choose to relocate their production to maintain their margins, because producing in Switzerland to sell abroad is less and less profitable.
For 60 years, the Steiger Participations SA company has been producing its knitting machines in Vionnaz, in Valais. Cutting-edge machines, the most complex on the market in the clothing sector, which can knit up to 32 threads simultaneously.
But within a few months, all machines intended for the clothing sector, even high-end models, will be produced in China, RTS reveals on Tuesday 7:30 p.m. And this despite his boss’s efforts to avoid it, in particular by always purchasing cheaper supplies.
“We first negotiated with our local suppliers. We managed to save around 9%, but it wasn’t enough. So we had to go to our European suppliers, then to China. But in the end, we got had to decide to have the machines produced directly in our factory in China”, he explains.
Fall in sales margins
Because producing in Switzerland and selling abroad is less and less profitable due to exchange rate fluctuations. Thus, if a machine sells for 60,000 euros, this corresponded to more than 100,000 Swiss francs in 2007, compared to only 56,000 francs at the end of 2023.
In 2012, Steiger had already cut almost half of its jobs, justifying this decision by a fall in demand made worse by the strong franc.
>> Read: Steiger Participations cuts almost half of its positions at Vionnaz (VS)
Entire industry affected
The strength of the franc thus makes the margins disappear and Steiger is unfortunately not an isolated case. The entire industry is suffering, underlines François Gabella, vice-president of the Association of the Swiss Machinery and Equipment Industry (Swissmem).
“We are already seeing a certain number of signs of a slowdown in businesses, such as partial unemployment which is starting to appear here and there,” he describes.
Steiger will continue to produce high-end knitting machines in Valais for the medical and aeronautics sectors. These two areas are expected to grow in the coming years, which “would compensate for the decrease in volume in the clothing sector”, hopes its director.
But faced with the strength of the franc, producing in Switzerland while preserving its profits constitutes a tangle that is increasingly difficult to untangle for the export industry.
Nicolas Rossé/jop
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