Porsche AG secures German jobs until July 2015

FRANKFURT, July 21 (Reuters) - Sports car maker Porsche AG (PSHG_p.DE) secured the jobs of its 8,600-strong German workforce for another five years in return for a pledge from labour to boost productivity more than 6 percent every year.

"Against this backdrop, we are confident that we can continue to increase our revenue and earnings in the coming years," outgoing Porsche AG chief Michael Macht said in a statement on Wednesday.

Porsche lost its independence to Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) last year after its previous management under Wendelin Wiedeking nearly bankrupted the company trying to acquire VW. He was sacked and replaced with VW's chief executive, Martin Winterkorn.

Production of the Boxster cabrio currently built at Finland's Valmet Automotive (MEO1V.HE) will be shifted permanently to Stuttgart beginning next month, helping to fill up unused capacity in the plant through 2015.

Starting early next year, Valmet will also only supply the painted car bodies of the Boxster-derived Cayman coupe which will then be assembled in Stuttgart.

"I fear we may have to run extra shifts in January already," Porsche labour leader Uwe Hueck said in the statement.

Should capacity utilisation reach its limit, Porsche will make use of Volkswagen's extensive manufacturing network. The VW plant in Hanover, Germany already supplies the painted bodies of the Porsche Panamera grand tourer.

Porsche AG plans to invest an amount in the high hundreds of millions of euros in its three German sites in Stuttgart, Weissach and Ludwigsburg.

The sports car maker famous for the 911 Carrera aims to extend the same job guarantees to its Porsche Leipzig GmbH unit, where the Panamera and Cayenne SUV are assembled.

Altogether, Porsche's sports car operations employ 12,600 worldwide.

Porsche added that it had record high incoming orders in May and June, the latter of which according to the company pulled in new bookings of at least 10,000.

(Reporting by Christiaan Hetzner)