From Detroit Free Press
TROY, MI — DuPont Automotive Systems, the Troy, MI-based supplier of paint for new vehicles, said Wednesday it might eliminate 200 jobs in a consolidation of two facilities to save money.
Paint laboratories in Troy and Mt. Clemens, MI, will be consolidated into a larger plant and research facility in Mt. Clemens. Rising raw materials costs and a need to be closer to the company’s main Mt. Clemens manufacturing plant, the largest automotive paint facility in the world, led Stephen Cox, DuPont’s vice president of Americas and automotive systems, to consolidate the facilities.
DuPont has other facilities in Troy that are not affected. The DuPont Troy site will continue operations at three buildings and technical development facilities in a variety of automotive businesses including automotive coatings, elastomers, engineering plastics, fluoropolymers, air-conditioning refrigerants and advanced specialty fibers.
DuPont is still determining the consolidation costs.
The Troy facility will close before October, forcing a cut of 200 technical, sales, marketing and administrative positions.
“Our intent is to redeploy as many people as possible to open positions in other businesses throughout our company, and we will treat affected employees in a fair and caring manner,” Cox said. “The timing of this decision was driven by automotive industry conditions and the continued, unprecedented escalation of raw materials costs.”
The Troy laboratory is 34 years old, and the Mt. Clemens laboratory, which DuPont bought from Ford Motor Co. in 1986, is 20 years old.
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