BASF Cuts Care Chemicals Jobs

BASF says it will cut 120 positions across its home care, industrial and institutional cleaning, and formulation technologies businesses by mid-2015 as part of a series of measures to “strengthen the competitiveness” of its care chemicals division. The division sells a broad range of products including cosmetic ingredients, detergents, surfactants, pigments, and ultraviolet filters. It generated sales in 2013 of $6.7 billion, a drop of 0.6% compared with the year earlier. The firm disclosed in its 2013 annual report that the market for performance products, including those in its care chemicals division, “continues to be challenging” and that it anticipates it will only slightly increase sales in 2014.