DuPont Makes More Cutbacks in Coatings Unit

DuPont Co. said this week it would close several manufacturing and research facilities and eliminate 1,500 jobs, mostly in Europe, in its coatings and color-technologies division. The move reflects weakness in Europe's economy and in the U.S. automotive industry. The coatings division supplies paint to auto manufacturers and other businesses around the world.

From The Philadelphia Inquirer

DuPont Co. said this week it would close several manufacturing and research facilities and eliminate 1,500 jobs, mostly in Europe, in its coatings and color-technologies division.

The move reflects weakness in Europe’s economy and in the U.S. automotive industry. The coatings division supplies paint to auto manufacturers and other businesses around the world.

But DuPont — which has been hurt badly by the high cost of petroleum and last year’s Gulf Coast hurricanes — said yesterday that it was rebounding, and raised its first-quarter earnings forecast.

The company said it expected to earn 80 cents a share in the first quarter, up from a previous estimate of 70 cents a share. It raised its full-year forecast to $2.70 a share from $2.60.

DuPont shares rose 95 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $42.87 yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange.

The firm had announced last month that it would close a coatings lab in Troy, MI, and consolidate operations in Mount Clemens, MI.

The division has been hurt by Detroit automakers’ declining market share, and it was one of the businesses that DuPont said last fall was underperforming.

DuPont spokesman Richard Straitman said yesterday that there would be no job cuts in Wilmington or Philadelphia, where DuPont has a coatings lab. He said some workers in the performance-coatings unit in Wilmington could be reassigned elsewhere within DuPont. The performance-coatings unit makes automotive and maintenance finishes.

DuPont said the restructuring was likely to save $165 million a year. It said it would take a first-quarter charge of a similar amount for costs associated with the restructuring.

The plan will cost an additional $55 million in the next year.

“This transformation is designed not only to improve the short-term health of these businesses, but also to ensure a sustainable, profitable growth,” chief executive officer Charles Holliday Jr. said in a statement.

DuPont will close labs and plants in Spain, the Netherlands and Germany. It is expanding its coatings business in Japan, China, Brazil and Russia.

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