German machine makers cut production

German plant and machine makers plan to reduce output and cut as many as 25,000 jobs this year as sales falter, the VDMA machine makers association said.

Production may fall 7 percent in 2009 after rising 5.4 percent to 194 billion euros last year, the Frankfurt-based association said in an e-mailed statement. In December, plant and machinery orders slumped 40 percent from a year earlier.

"Many of our customers are quite unsettled and have stopped investing," VDMA President Manfred Wittenstein said in the statement. Rising insolvencies, he added, will account for 10,000 job losses.