Orangeburg’s Albemarle Corp. said the plant is eliminating some jobs and providing “voluntary separation incentives” for salaried employees as part of a company restructuring plan.

“The restructuring is associated with efforts to improve efficiencies of operations,” Albemarle’s Orangeburg Plant Manager Rebecca Schmidt said. “These efforts are being taken to keep the site competitive in the businesses that it has long served, including ibuprofen, and to maintain sustainability and profitability of the site.”

Schmidt declined providing specifics about how many employees will be impacted by the restructuring.

“The total reduction will depend on the number of employees that sign up for the voluntary packages, but it is expected to be 5 percent or less,” she said.

The plant employs 330, according to the Orangeburg County Development Commission.

Also, in answer to rumors the plant’s ibuprofen production has ceased due to competition overseas, Schmidt said the product is still being produced at the plant.

“Ibuprofen operations are not shut down; on the contrary, we have very high demand currently and projected in future,” Schmidt said.

The Orangeburg facility, which is considered to be the world’s largest producer of the pharmaceutical drug, began making ibuprofen in 1977.

Ibuprofen is one of the leading pain relief medicines on the market and is included as the active ingredient in products such as Motrin and Advil.

The plant has often made enhancements in its ibuprofen production capabilities with the aim toward allowing it to be force in the pharmaceutical market and stave off increasing competition from plants in the United States, India and China.

The news of restructuring comes as the company’s corporate offices in Baton Rouge, La., released its report on third-quarter earnings.

The company says earnings fell slightly because of increases in prices for raw materials and hurricane impact.

For the July-through-August period, Albemarle earned $56.2 million, or 61 cents per share, on revenue of $660.5 million, compared with year-ago earnings in the third quarter of $59.1 million, or 61 cents per share, on revenue of $584 million.

A $50 million increase in the cost of raw materials from a year ago also affected earnings, the company said.

In early Friday afternoon trading, Albemarle shares were up 35 cents, at $23.76. The shares have traded in a 52-week range of $18.97 to $47.88.

T&D Staff Writer Gene Zaleski can be reached by e-mail at gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5551.

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