BASF To Cut Jobs Across Europe ...

BASF is taking restructuring steps in its performance products business that will result in the loss of about 500 jobs by the end of 2015. The company says it is responding to increasing standardization and the entry of new competitors in businesses such as plastics additives, pigments, and chemicals for water, leather, and textiles. Many of the cuts are at facilities in the Basel, Switzerland, area. There, BASF will eliminate up to 350 jobs as it moves some operations to its headquarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany, and scales back a research center. The job reductions include previously announced cutbacks at water chemical plants in Bradford and Grimsby, England, and a shift in emphasis in the leather and textile chemicals business toward Asia.