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Corning To Lay Off 250 Worldwide

By Jenny Callison, posted Nov 7, 2013

Corning Inc. announced Thursday that it will lay off about 250 optical fiber workers in its global operations. Company officials would not say whether any of those job losses would come from its Wilmington plant.

Reached by telephone for comment about the coming layoffs, Corning spokeswoman Monica Monin said, “We expected the worldwide fiber market to grow 5-10 percent in volume in 2013. However, we now believe the market will be consistent with 2012.

“Because the market isn’t meeting our growth expectations, we will take actions to reduce capacity. About 250 employees from our worldwide optical fiber business will be impacted.”

Corning was not disclosing specific numbers of job losses by location, to protect itself from competition, Monin said.

There was no mention of Corning layoffs at either its Wilmington or Concord, N.C. fiber optic plants on the NC Department of Commerce WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) website. The department requires companies in the state to report planned closings and layoffs at least 60 days in advance of execution.

Monin said that rising demand for fiber optic cable – hair-width glass tubes that facilitate long-distance telecommunication by transmitting data to cell phones, computers and other electronic devices – in the recent past led Corning to expect modest growth in 2013. That didn’t happen.

“There was a larger than expected contraction in the North American market and a flat China market,” Monin said. “Some developing markets that we thought would be larger were not.”

Corning, based in Corning, N.Y., and long known for its glass manufacturing, invented the first commercially viable low-loss optical fiber in 1970, according to the company website. Nine years later it opened, in Wilmington, the world’s first optical fiber manufacturing facility. Corning’s website states that the operation remains the world’s largest optical fiber manufacturing plant.

Corning's announcement followed the late October WARN notification from Invista, with a plant in northern New Hanover County, confirming it will lay off about 100 employees involved in the manufacture of Dimethyl Terephthalate (DMT). Invista corporate spokesman Greg Standifer said that the layoffs will be accomplished in two phases in December and January 2014. He said the demand for DMT, a raw material used by the polyester fiber and film industries, has waned and the company plans to discontinue its production.

The company originally announced the wind down of DMT production in September 2012, to manage the process safely and to allow employees time to find other jobs, Standifer said.

Also on the WARN list in late October was an announcement from Mundy Maintenance, Operations and Services LLC, which plans to lay off 97 workers in New Hanover County.

Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said he regards the recent round of regional layoffs as an “ebb and flow” issue.

Saffo said many of the layoffs in the region are being driven by market demand, which typically results in large layoff announcements before improving conditions allow employers to hire more workers.

“Hopefully, the market conditions will improve and these people will be rehired,” Saffo said.

But despite layoffs by Corning and Invista, which came soon after the closure of DAK Americas' plant in Navassa, Saffo said the region should be optimistic about recent job gains in the area. He said Live Oak Bank’s announcement that it would hire 120 people and expand its headquarters in the Port City, Castle Branch's current expansion and the recent announcement of Acme Smoked Fish Corp.’s plan to bring 120 news jobs to Pender County, are examples of solid economic growth locally.

“We’re dealing with a worldwide economy,” Saffo said. “It’s going to become more important for us all to work together to attract new jobs and industry to the city and the area.”

Reporter J. Elias O'Neal contributed to this report. 

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