In an effort to reduce costs by more than $100 million, Eastman Chemical Co. recently announced it will reduce base pay for U.S. employees by 5% effective March 30, 2009, with equivalent cost reductions in bargaining unit sites and locations outside the U.S. The Kingsport, Tenn.-based company also will eliminate between 200-300 jobs within the next four to six weeks, reduce non-critical maintenance costs as well as logistics costs, and further reduce discretionary spending.
“The severity of the current economic environment led to the actions we are announcing today,” said Brian Ferguson, chairman and CEO. “Despite our expectation that sales volume will continue to be at depressed levels, we remain committed to taking the necessary actions to deliver solid operating cash flow in 2009 that will more than support both our dividend and capital expenditures.”
In addition to taking actions to reduce costs, the company lowered its budgeted 2009 capital expenditures to between $300 and $350 million. The company also expects to generate approximately $100 million of cash from working capital in 2009, assuming continued difficult economic conditions and raw material and energy costs similar to current levels.
Commenting on the outlook for full-year 2009 earnings, Ferguson said, “While visibility into global demand continues to be limited, the actions we are taking to reduce costs position us to better weather the storm. Assuming a modest improvement in demand that increases our capacity utilization from the current rate of approximately 71% to between 75%-80% for the remainder of the year, we expect our full-year 2009 earnings per share will be between $2.00-$3.00 excluding charges related to cost cutting actions.”
Eastman Chemical is aCP 50company. To view the Eastman Chemical profile, visit: http://www.chemicalprocessing.com/cp50/2008/eastman_chemical.html.
To view the entire CP 50 list, visit: http://www.chemicalprocessing.com/cp50/index.html.
