Chemical company to lay off dozens in Charlotte

The German chemical company BASF will lay off over 50 workers in Charlotte as it shuts down a department at one plant and merges a unit at another local facility with Solenis International, a specialty chemical manufacturer based in Delaware.

BASF’s hygiene products unit at its plant on Westinghouse Boulevard in Steele Creek will cease operations by Dec. 31, resulting in the loss of 27 jobs, BASF said in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notice filed recently with the state. Functions within that unit will transfer to BASF facilities in Houston. Affected positions range from lab technicians to account managers.

BASF also said its paper and water chemicals business in Steele Creek is combining operations with Solenis, and that all 26 jobs will either be cut or transferred to Solenis.Impacted roles range from account managers to to service technicians.

Including on-site contractors, BASF employs over 400 people in Charlotte, according to a recent fact sheet from the company. Its local technical center houses a number of business and administrative functions, including customer care, supply chain, R&D and regulatory.

For the water industry, BASF’s products are used in industrial and municipal water treatment, and for the paper industry, it makes a range of chemicals for paper and packaging. The company doesn’t have any production facilities in Charlotte.

BASF’s two local facilities — at 3304 Westinghouse Blvd. and 11501 Steele Creek Road — will remain in operation despite the closure of the business units.

“BASF will continue to support the local community and values its longstanding relationships in the Charlotte area,” BASF spokesman Bob Nelson said in an email.

Two jobs from each of BASF’s two local operations are based in New Jersey but report to supervisors in Charlotte, so they will also be impacted by the company’s upcoming layoffs.

The merger of BASF’s paper and water chemicals business with Solenis is part of a previously announced plan. In May, the two companies said that BASF will hold a 49 percent share of the combined company that will operate under the Solenis name. The combined company will be headquartered in Wilmington, Del. The deal is supposed to close by Dec. 31.

BASF has had a presence in southwest Charlotte since at least the mid 1980s. According to a September 1985 Observer story, BASF paid $1.69 million for the 71,000-square-foot facility on a 8.5-acre tract on Steele Creek Road, formerly occupied by Kanematsu Gosho USA.

“BASF has already provided advance notice of these closures to impacted employees even prior to this WARN notice to enable employees to apply for other open roles within the company or to secure alternative employment outside the company and to inform employees about BASF severance benefits,” BASF said in the WARN notice.

This story was originally published November 12, 2018 at 2:12 PM.