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Entegris, Inc., announced that it will be closing the larger of its two manufacturing plants in Chaska, Minnesota, U.S. The closure will result in the loss of 200 jobs, roughly seven percent of the company’s worldwide work force, and more than a quarter of its Chaska employees.

The closure is due to the company aspirations to move manufacturing closer to its Asia-based customers. The plant is not scheduled to close until late in the first quarter of 2009, which will result in, company officials hope, an annual savings of $6-8 million in 2010. Until closure, the company will sustain about $15 million in charges over the next four quarters that are directly related to the Chaska plant closure.  

The Chaska plant primarily makes wafer-handling materials for semiconductor manufacturing with most of its major customers based in Asia. Steve Cantor, VP of Corporate Relations says this is the way for the company to move the work to its Asian operations located in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, China and Japan. The company also has operations in Germany and France.
 
Currently, around 75 percent of Entegris’ products are sold outside the U.S., with 75 percent of its production in the country as well. The long-term goal, Cantor stated, is to gradually shift the balance to about 50-50. The Chaska plant closure will bring the company to roughly 60 percent of its production being in the U.S.  

Along with announcing the plant closure, Entegris also released its third-quarter earnings reporting a loss of $411.4 million for the quarter that ended on 27 September, from a profit of $8.4 million last year. The company attributes this to a $395.3 million charge of impairment of goodwill set off by the decline in its market value. Sales were also reported to have fallen to $145.8 million, down from $151.8 million last year.