DuPont Co. announced May 7 that it would cut 2,000 jobs, including an unspecified number from its Performance Materials unit.
The unit — which includes DuPont's market-leading nylon resin business — was one of four singled out for cuts in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The cuts are expected to result in annual savings of $70 million in 2009 and $225 million by the end of 2010, officials with Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont said in a news release.
“The expanded actions will help preserve our strong cash position, streamline and accelerate our approach to markets and better position our businesses as global economies rebound,” DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman said in the release.
Company officials also cited demand declines, “particularly in motor vehicle, construction and industrial markets,” as reasons for the cuts. That would point to the firm's nylon unit, which generates about half of its sales from the automotive sector.
The cuts and other unspecified plant closings will reduce fixed costs for 2009 by $1 billion, instead of by $730 million, as spelled out in previously announced reductions.
The only confirmed closing so far has been of an 86-employee plant making Hypalon-brand and Acsium-brand modified ethylene elastomers in Beaumont, Texas. The plant will close by the end of June, a company spokeswoman told European Rubber Journal, a sister publication of Plastics News.
DuPont will try to transfer the Beaumont site's 86 employees to other jobs within the company, the spokeswoman said.
In December, DuPont announced plans to cut 2,500 full-time jobs and 4,000 contractor positions. Of the full-time cuts, 550 were expected to come from the United States. The firm employed about 60,000 in 2008.