Clariant To Cut 100 More Jobs

As part of an ongoing reorganization effort that has led to more than 3,700 layoffs since 2009, specialty chemicals maker Clariant will consolidate a number of production sites and move its textile chemicals business unit to Singapore. The changes will result in the loss of an additional 100 jobs.

By 2013, the textile chemicals management and global applications development team will move from Reinach, Switzerland, to Singapore "at the center of the world's main textile markets," the firm says. A technical textiles and finishing applications development lab in Reinach will relocate to Muttenz, Switzerland, near Basel.

Clariant is taking other actions that will close the Reinach site by 2013. Other R&D staffers there will transfer to Frankfurt, the firm's global hub for corporate R&D. And its paper specialties business unit will leave Reinach for Muttenz. About 60 Switzerland-based employees will be able to transfer to Germany and Singapore, the company says.

To reduce costs and management complexity, Clariant also plans to close production sites in McHenry, Ill.; Delta, British Columbia; and Sefakoy, Turkey. It will also consolidate three Guatemalan locations into one and close some production lines in India and Japan.

Beginning in 2009, Clariant undertook a program to cut 3,200 employees. It announced an additional 500 job eliminations earlier this year (C&EN, Feb. 1, page 18). The firm says the latest round of cuts ends the reorganization effort.