Mass layoffs! Can another medical device giant no longer hold on?

On July 8, foreign media reported that Abbott, a globally renowned medical device company, laid off more than 400 employees in Maine—attributed to declining market demand for its COVID-19 diagnostic products. Of the over 400 employees laid off, approximately 300 were based in Westbrook and around 100 in Scarborough. The mayor of Westbrook has confirmed the city’s report that roughly 300 Abbott employees there will be terminated. In May 2020, amid surging demand for COVID-19 testing products due to the pandemic, Abbott announced it would expand staffing at its Westbrook facility—which manufactures COVID-19 test kits—to about 1,200 employees. In September 2020, for the same reason, Abbott added approximately 2,000 jobs in Illinois. In a statement, Abbott wrote: “We have recently observed a significant and rapid decline in demand for COVID-19 testing, and anticipate this trend will continue.” However, Abbott has not issued any further response regarding the layoffs of over 400 employees in Maine. The outbreak of the pandemic severely impacted numerous industries—but for the healthcare sector, especially in vitro diagnostics (IVD), it also brought explosive revenue growth to many companies. Today, as pandemic control measures prove effective and vaccination campaigns advance steadily, the pandemic’s positive impact on corporate production and development is continuously diminishing. If even a major corporation like Abbott must carry out large-scale layoffs following the pandemic’s retreat, what then lies ahead for the many IVD enterprises whose rapid expansion was triggered by the pandemic? 1 Abbott previously experienced false negatives False-negative rate for COVID-19 tests exceeded 50% In early June, Abbott announced a dramatic shift in the outlook for its rapid COVID-19 testing business. Meanwhile, its April financial report revealed that total COVID-19 test sales in Q1 dropped from $2.4 billion in Q4 of the previous year to $2.2 billion—resulting in an approximate $230 million shortfall in overall sales (excluding analyst forecasts); the diagnostics division alone fell short by about $360 million. Abbott’s BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card was a key early driver of rapid-test sales. Abbott acquired Alere Inc. for $5.3 billion, inheriting the underlying technology for this test. However, a new study published by New York University in May 2020 indicated that Abbott Laboratories’ ID NOW rapid SARS-CoV-2 test kit—using dry nasal swabs—may miss nearly half of all positive cases. Researchers collected nasal swab samples from 101 individuals; Cepheid’s testing identified 31 positives among them. Yet when those same 31 samples were tested using ID NOW, 48% returned negative results. That is, over 50% of confirmed positive patients were falsely diagnosed as negative using this device! Even when researchers switched to more accurate nasopharyngeal swabs, ID NOW’s false-negative rate remained as high as one-third.

Year-in-review 2025! Global chemical giants slim down: plant closures, divestitures, layoffs…

In December, Clariant completed the sale of its Venezuelan legal entity (Clariant Venezuela S.A.) to Venezuelan firm CMV Química C.A. Clariant’s 2024 Venezuelan operations generated approximately CHF 3 million in sales and employed around 60 people. 20. Ascend Performance Materials In April, Ascend initiated Chapter 11 restructuring proceedings, completing the process in December. In June, Ascend decided to shut down its hexamethylenediamine (HMDA) production facility in Lianyungang, China (capacity: 200,000 tons/year)—a site that had only opened in October of the previous year. 21. Westlake Chemical In June, Westlake Chemical decided to permanently close its Bisphenol-A (BPA) (150,000 tons/year) and liquid epoxy resin (100,000 tons/year) units at its Pernis plant in the Netherlands—and will not restart its allyl chloride and epichlorohydrin units at the same facility, which had been idled since July 2024. These closures are expected to eliminate 230 jobs. In December, Westlake Chemical decided to close three U.S. vinyl chloride plants and one U.S. styrene plant: • A 450,000-ton/year suspension polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant in Aberdeen, Mississippi; • A 413,000-ton/year vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana; • A membrane-type chlor-alkali facility in Lake Charles (annual capacity: 375,000 tons chlorine, 413,000 tons caustic soda); • A 259,000-ton/year styrene plant in Lake Charles. Westlake stated it will continue supplying PVC, VCM, and chlor-alkali products from its other seven North American vinyl chloride plants, while exiting the styrene business entirely. These closures are projected to result in approximately 295 job losses. 22. Röhm GmbH In July, Röhm closed its Westwego, Louisiana facility—a move aligned with the commissioning of its new methyl methacrylate (MMA) plant in Bay City, Texas. This state-of-the-art facility employs Röhm’s proprietary LiMA technology and boasts an annual capacity of 250,000 tons. 23. Arlanxeo In October, Arlanxeo announced plans to cease operations at its Port-Jérôme plant in France. Arlanxeo, a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, operates a facility there with annual capacities of 100,000 tons of polybutadiene rubber (PBR) and 40,000 tons of styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR). It also maintains a production base in La Wantzenau, France. 24. Wacker Chemie In November, Wacker Chemie announced plans to cut over 1,500 jobs globally, with the majority of reductions occurring at its German sites. Implementation will begin in Q1 2026 and conclude by the end of 2027. Earlier, in July, it had already announced the layoff of approximately 90 employees at its Charleston, Tennessee manufacturing site in the U.S. 25. Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation In January, Mitsubishi Chemical canceled plans to build a new 350,000-ton-per-year MMA monomer plant in Louisiana, USA. In February, Mitsubishi Chemical sold Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation to Bain Capital for approximately ¥510 billion. In March, Mitsubishi Chemical decided to phase out chemical production at its Oharai Plant in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, and its Shinryō Plant in Iwaki City—beginning in March 2026 and fully terminating operations by the end of March 2027.

Canada's Stelco to recall 175 laid-off workers, restart Hamilton plant finishing lines

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Canadian steelmaker Stelco plans to recall 175 workers and restart Hamilton plant finishing operations on December 1 after securing customer deals. This marks a recovery for the tariff-hit steel industry, supported by demand from mining, energy, and AI data center sectors.

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Canada's Stelco to recall 175 laid-off workers, restart Hamilton plant finishing lines

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