LEVERKUSEN, Germany—Covestro A.G. is cutting 900 jobs globally as part of a company-wide cost savings move.
The Leverkusen-based plastics and chemicals firm announced the cuts Oct. 25 as part of its third-quarter earnings release. The move is part of a plan to save $398 million by 2021.
Chief Financial Officer Thomas Toepfer said in a news release that third quarter results "met our expectations," but added that Covestro "is seeing increasingly challenging economic conditions, and also experienced limited product availability in Europe and Asia in the past quarter."
Officials listed administrative areas as a potential category for the job cuts. The cuts represent about 5.5 percent of Covestro's global work force of 16,200.
A company spokesman said that 400 of the job cuts will take place in Germany. He added that all 900 cuts are expected to be made by 2021.
In the first nine months of 2018, Covestro's sales were up almost 7 percent to more than $12.8 billion, while profit jumped almost 21 percent to more than $1.9 billion.
Third-quarter growth, however, was lower, with sales up 5 percent, but profit up only 1 percent.
Covestro ranks as a major global producer of polycarbonate, polyurethanes and other specialty plastics and chemical products.