Clariant Details Job Cuts

Switzerland-based Clariant has provided details on the 500 job cuts CEO Hariolf Kottmann revealed recently at a meeting of investors (C&EN, Feb. 1, page 18). Hardest hit will be Clariant’s Muttenz, Switzerland, facility, where 400 jobs are slated to go by 2013. The specialty chemical firm plans to transfer textile dye and chemical production from Muttenz to as yet unidentified locations in Asia. The firm also plans to transfer paper chemical production to a facility in Prat de Llobregat, Spain. Additional jobs will be lost when the firm partially closes a textile chemical plant in Resende, Brazil, and a pigment and additives plant in Thane, India. The new cuts come on top of 3,200 layoffs that were disclosed and mostly completed last year.