The latest round of lackluster first-half earnings results is accompanied by additional job cutbacks by European companies. This time, however, the numbers are smaller and are spread more evenly around the globe than earlier cuts from companies such as BASF and Bayer that seemed to spare home market staff.

At Switzerland's Ciba Specialty Chemicals, for example, attempts to hold down costs have pinpointed several areas for layoffs. An overall effort, which began early this year and is expected to continue to the end of 2002, will see a reduction of about 450 jobs worldwide, according to a Ciba spokeswoman.

Locations are not yet identified, she says, adding that the reductions are expected to result from natural attrition and fluctuation of its workforce. Ciba, she says, considers "natural fluctuation" as that affecting 5% of its workforce on a worldwide basis; the 450 jobs are about 2.5% of the total workforce.

The 450 number reflects focused efforts to streamline the company's global supply chain, a key area of cost-cutting concentration. And the number will also include some reduction in the workforce--primarily in the U.S. and the U.K.--in Ciba's water and paper treatment business segment. Clariant, Ciba's Swiss rival in specialty chemicals, recently announced 1,000 job cuts of its own (C&EN, Aug. 20, page 17).

Meanwhile, the Eka Chemicals division of Akzo Nobel says it will reduce its staff by about 175, with more than 100 of the cuts coming at sites in Bohus and Alby, both in Sweden. Eka is the largest business unit in Akzo Nobel's chemicals division.

The cuts are part of the 1,000-job reduction announced last month by Akzo Nobel for its chemical operations (C&EN, July 30, page 18). The bulk of those layoffs, as well as another 1,000 cuts in Akzo Nobel's coatings operations, will fall on the company's plants in Europe.

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