H.C. Starck is a name that many of you may have not heard on in the past. So today, before we talk about the job cuts that the company is making we are going to take a look at how the company has chosen to describe itself, “The H.C. Starck is an international group of companies with more than 2,700 employees at 12 production sites in Europe, North America and the Far East. The companies produce Refractory Metals & Advanced Ceramics as powder or fabricated product.”

Sadly the company is getting ready to get rid of 67 workers at its facility in the town of Euclid. The jobs, which are enough to qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines, will begin on the 21^st of January. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the company chooses to describe itself, “The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program collects reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs. Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.”

The company, in its most recent release, chose to highlight a new polymer that the company has created, instead of talking about the job cuts that they are making in the near future, “H.C. Starck Ceramics to introduce a newly developed electroconductive silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) compound, which can be processed using electrical discharge machining (EDM), during the hybridica 2012 in Munich, Germany. Patented by H.C. Starck Ceramics, the new compound makes it significantly easier to process ceramic parts than is possible using conventional silicon nitride. H.C. Starck Ceramics’ new conductive Si₃N₄ offers considerable advantages to engineered ceramic parts manufacturing in which the complexity of the part, and not the cost of the material, has the most impact on machining costs. Thanks to a special modification, H.C. Starck Ceramics was able to make the compound electroconductive, thereby opening the door to EDM technology and the possibility of manufacturing complex ceramic tools otherwise impossible using conventional silicon nitride. The new compound is showing significantly improved wear resistance, meaning longer tool lifetimes and, as a result, considerable cost savings.”

This is, of course, not the first materials company to make job cuts. For those of you who missed out on our earlier coverage of job cuts to Momentive Performance Materials Inc here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed in no time at all, “The company has chosen to cut back on about 200 workers in order to set its balance sheet to right. The company will only be making the layoffs temporary, though the layoffs were unlikely to trigger a mass layoff action… The company recently put out a release with its third quarter results, which shows why the company has chosen to cut costs, “Net sales of $571 million compared to $653 million in the prior year period. The decline was primarily due to a decrease in volume and price, as well as product mix shift. Operating loss of $(7) million versus operating income of $27 million in the prior year period. Third quarter 2012 operating loss reflected margin compression in certain product lines and a product mix shift due to declines in certain higher-margin products. Net loss attributable to Momentive Performance Materials Inc. of $(81) million compared to a net loss of $(32) million in the prior year period, which reflected the same factors impacting operating loss.”

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