BASF will cut jobs

BASF plans to eliminate about 2,000 jobs related to its integration of two businesses—Engelhard and Degussa's construction materials unit—acquired earlier this year and to an additional global restructuring program. BASF says the Engelhard integration will result in about 800 job cuts and $200 million in annual savings by 2010. One of its first moves will be to relocate the roughly 500 employees who work at the former Engelhard headquarters in Iselin, N.J. About half will go to BASF's U.S. headquarters in Florham Park, N.J., and the rest to another Engelhard building in Iselin that will be the global headquarters of BASF's catalyst business. A catalyst R&D center, also in Iselin, will stay open. Some 200 job cuts and $125 million in annual savings will come from a restructuring of the construction materials unit. BASF will generate another $38 million in savings from the integration of the recently acquired Johnson Polymers business. In addition, the company plans to reduce another 1,000 positions globally, mostly in North America and Asia, as part of a program to reduce costs by $375 million by 2008. Some of those reductions will come from previously announced moves, such as BASF's plans to close superabsorbent polymers plants in Aberdeen, Miss., and Portsmouth, Va.