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| Recessionary trends take toll of major global chemical companies | | January 07, 2009 (Global) |  |
In the last quarter of the year, industry was troubled by the global meltdown which began from the US, and spread across the world. BASF - the world’s largest chemical company in terms of sales has slashed its production, due to enormous decline in demand for its products. The company has temporarily shut down 80 of its plants worldwide.
In addition, BASF is reducing production at approximately 100 plants. Scheduled maintenance work is being brought forward. Worldwide, approximately 20,000 employees have been affected by the production cuts. The adjustments have been carried out in units that supply the automotive, construction and textile industries. Value chains affected include ammonia, styrene and polyamide, which manufacture precursors for engineering plastics, coatings and fibers.
The Dow Chemical Company has taken a series of aggressive actions to accelerate its transformational strategy in light of current economic realities. As part of the actions, Dow has eliminated approximately 5,000 full-time jobs, closed 20 facilities in high-cost locations and divested several non-strategic businesses. The job reductions represent a reduction of roughly 11 percent of Dow’s global workforce.
Once fully implemented, these actions are expected to result in $700 million in annual operating cost savings by 2010 and are additional to the previously announced cost synergies of $800 million in the same time frame for the anticipated Rohm and Haas acquisition. In addition, due to poor current market conditions, Dow has temporarily idled approximately 180 plants and significantly reduced its contractor workforce worldwide by approximately 6,000 due to vastly reduced operations.
Huntsman Textile Effect is one more company in the long list which has cut 470 jobs in a new effort to trim costs in the unit that makes textile dyes and chemicals. Huntsman’s Textile Effects is the leading global provider of high-quality dyes and chemicals to the textile and related industries. | | | | Fibre2fashion News Desk - India | |
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