Leverkusen-based German chemical company Lanxess announced on Monday it'll increase its workforce by some ten percent this year after achieving the same in 2011.

The Chairman of the Board of Managers, Axel C. Heitmann, told the Rheinische Post newspaper, that most of the 1,600 new jobs in the pipeline would be created in Germany itself with only a small proportion to be added at the company's over 40 sites abroad.

At present, Lanxess employs 16,000 people around the globe. "I'd be very glad, if we were able to increase our workforce by another 10 percent in 2012," Heitmann said.

At the same time, Heitmann denied reports according to which Lanxess was about to merge with Evonik or Bayer Material Science divisions.

Persistent rumors

"Nobody has talked to me about any such merger," Heitmann commented. He said any talk about Lanxess buying Bayer's plastics material business was unfounded as his company aspired to grow on its own and needed no partner for a merger.

The company renewed its criticism of what it perceived as disproportionately high energy prices in Germany. It said in a statement that Lanxess' energy costs were higher than its labor costs, adding that electricity prices alone had risen by 50 percent within only five years. This could jeopardize many of the current jobs in the long run, the company feared.

Lanxess' roots go back to 1863 when the Bayer group was founded. In 2005, the company emerged as an independent firm after a realignment of Bayer's chemical and plastics businesses.

Lanxess - which is listed on the MDAX, the stock exchange index of German companies just below the DAX giants - is to move its global headquarters from its historic home in Leverkusen to the nearby big city of Cologne in the second half of 2013.

Author: Hardy Graupner (dpa, Reuters)
Editor: Michael Lawton