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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWacker Chemie<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAnnounced on May 8, 2026; implementation to be completed by the end of 2027<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tApprox. 1,600 jobs (previously estimated at over 1,500 in October 2025)<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t1. Adoption of voluntary programs, including phased early retirement arrangements and severance agreements; 2. All employees in Germany required to pay a temporary solidarity contribution until 2028, with a 4% reduction in working hours and wages to avoid forced layoffs; 3. Layoff distribution: 1,300 at the Burghausen site, 200 at the N\u00fcnchritz site, 60 at the Munich headquarters, and 50 at other German production sites; 4. All structural measures to be completed by the end of 2027 under the “Program for Adaptation and Cost Efficiency” (PACE).<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t1. Wacker launched the “PACE” cost-cutting program in October 2025, focusing on reducing production and administrative costs; 2. Wacker has 6 production sites in Germany, among which Burghausen is its largest global integrated site and the core base for polysilicon business, while N\u00fcnchritz is the second-largest multi-functional site with a polysilicon capacity of 15,000 tons\/year, primarily supplying the semiconductor and photovoltaic industries; 3. This layoff is a core measure of the project, aiming to save over 300 million euros in fixed costs annually in the future, with half coming from workforce reduction, to address operational pressures caused by high energy prices and cumbersome bureaucracy in Germany.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tEvonik<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMay 8, 2026 (in conjunction with Q1 2026 earnings disclosure)<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTotal reduction of 1,000 positions in 2026 (previous plan was to cut 2,000 globally by the end of 2026, including 1,500 in Germany)<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t1. The “Evonik Tailor Made” efficiency program enters its third year (final year), implementing layoffs combined with operational business optimization; 2. Layoffs primarily target administrative positions in Germany, not involving frontline operational roles, while planning to increase R&D staff; 3. Simultaneously advancing business segment restructuring, reorganizing business lines into two major sectors: Customized Solutions and Advanced Technologies, reducing management layers from 10 to a maximum of 6 by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t1. This layoff plan aims to reduce costs by approximately 400 million euros annually to address soaring energy prices and declining market demand; 2. Evonik’s sales in 2025 were 14.1 billion euros, a year-on-year decrease of about 7%, with adjusted EBITDA of 1.874 billion euros; adjusted EBITDA for 2026 is expected to be between 1.7 and 2.0 billion euros; 3. Plans have previously been made to divest parts of factory operations, including the Marl and Wesseling sites, involving about 3,600 employees, with a total of about 7,000 employees affected by restructuring and layoffs.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBASF<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFurther layoff plan announced in March 2026; specific factory layoff details disclosed on May 2<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t1. 100 layoffs at the McIntosh site (approx. 200 employees at this factory); 2. Further layoffs in administrative positions at the Ludwigshafen site in Germany, the Digital Services department, and major business service centers in Berlin, specific numbers not disclosed; 3. A long-term cost reduction plan has previously been initiated, with a cumulative reduction of about 700 production jobs at the Ludwigshafen site.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t1. The McIntosh site is closing part of its production lines due to high costs and market pressure; the factory mainly produces specialty chemicals serving the plastics and automotive industries; 2. Plans to transfer some German jobs to Asia, establishing a new back-office operations center in India and strengthening administrative and digital functions at the existing center in Malaysia; 3. Plans to significantly reduce the total number of employees in the digital sector to improve efficiency through digital transformation; 4. Only minor adjustments at the Ludwigshafen site, no large-scale production shutdowns in core areas.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t1. BASF’s Business Services department currently has about 8,500 employees; 2. A global layoff plan for 2,600 people was initiated in 2023, aiming to cut costs by 500 million euros annually outside of production starting from 2024, with half to be achieved at the Ludwigshafen headquarters; 3. Factors such as high energy prices in Europe and cumbersome approval processes have dragged down profitability, responding to market competitive pressure through plant closures, layoffs, and regional layout adjustments.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDow Chemical<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tLayoff plan announced on January 29, 2026; decision to close Belgian factory in October 2025, with affected personnel reflected by the end of Q1 2026<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t1. Core layoff of 4,500 employees; 2. Closure of the Tertre polyether polyol production facility in Belgium, affecting 37 employees and 8 contractors; 3. This layoff accounts for about 13% of its total global workforce (Dow has production facilities in 29 countries and employs about 34,600 people).<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t1. Launch of the comprehensive “Transform to Outperform” plan; severance costs approx. 600 to 800 million USD, with total one-time costs related to the plan totaling 1.1 to 1.5 billion USD (the remainder being other one-time costs); 2. Permanent closure of the Tertre polyether polyol production facility in Belgium by the end of Q1 2026 (capacity of 94,000 tons\/year); 3. Formation of a dedicated team to drive transformation, improving efficiency by simplifying workflows and introducing AI and automation technologies.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t1. Plans to increase EBITDA by at least 2 billion USD between 2026 and 2028 through this transformation plan, with two-thirds coming from productivity improvements and one-third from business growth; 2. Dow’s net sales in 2025 were 39.968 billion USD, a year-on-year decrease of 7%, with a net loss of 2.444 billion USD; multiple layoffs have previously been announced to cope with market difficulties.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tLG Group (LG Display)<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tStaff dissolution procedure initiated in early January 2026<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tOver 1,000 employees at the Yantai, Shandong LCD module factory (the factory had over 10,000 employees at its peak)<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t1. Initiation of full staff dissolution at the Yantai LCD module factory; equipment has been transferred to Vietnam, and the plant is intended for sale; 2. The factory has been implementing asset optimization since the end of 2024, and this dissolution is one of LG Display’s measures to fully divest LCD assets.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t1. LG Display is strategically shifting to high-value-added fields such as OLED; in 2025, OLED business revenue increased by 25% year-on-year, while LCD business revenue decreased by 15%; 2. The Yantai factory started production in 2010 with a total investment of over 400 million USD, previously supplying screen modules to giants like Apple and Samsung, and was one of the largest foreign enterprises in Yantai; this dissolution marks LG’s formal exit from the LCD business in China; 3. Employees are eligible for “N+1” compensation; this adjustment stems from factors such as the thin margins in the LCD industry and the shift of the global industrial chain to Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDomo Chemicals<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThree German subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy on December 29, 2025, with impact continuing until March 2026<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tApprox. 585 employees affected, including 515 at the Leuna plant in Germany and 70 at the Premnit Domo Engineering Plastics plant in Germany<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t1. Three German subsidiaries (Domo Chemicals GmbH, Domo Caproleuna GmbH, and Domo Engineering Plastics GmbH) filed for bankruptcy, suspending spot deliveries from German production bases; 2. The insolvency administrator plans to continue business operations and evaluate restructuring plans, including seeking investors or reaching settlements with creditors; 3. Employee wages are secured through insolvency protection measures until the end of March 2026.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t1. Bankruptcy and layoffs stem from weak demand in the European chemical industry, competitive pressure from non-EU polyamide resin imports, and the breakdown of short-term financing negotiations; 2. Its German plants mainly produce cumene, phenol, nylon 6 resins, and other products; 3. European chemical companies face issues such as high energy and raw material costs; Domo Chemicals initiated a restructuring plan in 2024, and this bankruptcy reflects the structural challenges in the industry.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wacker Chemie
Announced on May 8, 2026; implementation to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21106],"tags":[20305,53916,53914,53915,13173,53913],"class_list":["post-72444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basf","tag-basf","tag-chemical-news","tag-chemnet-headlines","tag-chemnet-news","tag-layoffs","tag-wacker-chemie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}