Dupont moving operations overseas

WILMINGTON, Del., Dec. 2 (UPI) -- The Dupont Co., Delaware's prime corporate citizen for two centuries, is following the automakers and other customers to China, India and Eastern Europe.

The company that already went through layoffs of more than 50,000 in the 1990s, said it must move closer to where things are being built -- China and other emerging economies.

Dupont said it plans to cut $900 million in costs over the next two years by reducing its workforce, streamlining its product lines, and consolidating manufacturing and support services, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

"We see very clearly as we're coming out of this recession that the customer base ... is shifting even more rapidly than most people projected" to those lower-cost regions of the world, DuPont's Chief Executive Officer Charles O. Holliday Jr. told a conference call with investors.

Holliday said there are no plans to move any division headquarters overseas.

DuPont employs 78,000 worldwide and in the United States operates major factories in Towanda, Pa.; Parlin, N.J., and the Chambers Works in Deepwater, N.J.