LANXESS recently announced it is pressing ahead with its realignment efforts. Effective January 1, 2015, LANXESS will merge certain business units, reducing their number from 14 to 10. In addition, the company is streamlining its global administration by reducing the workforce on a cross-functional basis and consolidating specific areas of activity. The respective employee representatives will be involved in the process.

LANXESS announced it will recombine the High Performance Elastomers (HPE) and Keltan Elastomers (KEL) business units under the name High Performance Elastomers (HPE). Jan Paul de Vries will head the new business unit.

In addition, the Rubber Chemicals (RUC) business unit’s specialty chemicals product line, the Functional Chemicals (FCC) business unit and the Rhein Chemie (RCH) business unit will be combined to form the new Rhein Chemie Additives (ADD) business unit. Bundling the additives businesses will open up new markets and attract new customers for LANXESS. The head of this new business unit will be Anno Borkowsky.

“We have been working at full steam over the past few months to create the foundation for our realignment,” said Matthias Zachert, chairman of the Board of Management, LANXESS AG. “We, as a team, will significantly improve our competitiveness by systematically implementing our program. We have started talks with the employee representatives on the implementation process, and we expect to quickly reach constructive solutions.”

For more information, visit www.lanxess.com.