Diamond giant blames lack of competitiveness for 370 lost jobs

THIS country’s lack of competitiveness was yesterday blamed for another huge jobs loss when international diamond giant Element Six (E6) announced the lay off of 370 workers at Shannon, claiming its Irish operation was the most expensive in the world.

The company said it will stop all manufacturing and distribution at its Shannon site in Co Clare and retain just 80 workers in research, administrative and customer support roles.

Bosses said they could no longer do business here, prompting local politicians to demand the Government urgently stem the job losses in the region.

Clare Mayor Tony Mulcahy said the announcement heightened fears that other multinationals could follow suit and slash staff. “The precedent set by the job losses at Dell, combined with the ongoing economic downturn, is having a devastating impact on the mid-west region’s manufacturing sector.”

Shocked workers were given the news at a meeting with management yesterday morning, but workers are furious at the redundancy package — one week pay for every year of service, plus statutory.

Mary O’Donnell of SIPTU said: “It is totally outrageous and it will not be accepted. We will not close this plant on one week per year of service. In fact we will be expecting a lot more than people got in the past.”

The decision brings to a close the company’s manufacturing operation in Shannon which was set up in 1963.

All manufacturing and distribution is to be ceased at Shannon, with only 80 workers being retained in the R&D and development departments.

The company is the world’s leading supplier of diamond supermaterials used in a wide-range of industries such as oil and gas, automotive, construction, mining, telecommunications and technology. It has facilities in China, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden and Britain.

It employs more than 20,000 worldwide and has an annual turnover in the region of $6.5 billion (€4.57bn).

Last December, E6 reduced its 620-strong workforce at Shannon to less than 500 and the plant has been operating at 40% capacity.

De Beers was the first company to discover how diamonds had uses far beyond jewellery. De Beers, which rebranded as Element Six in 2002, can trace its history back to 1946 when Ernest Oppenheimer established the first company in the world to focus on industrial uses for natural diamonds.

The company was initially called Industrial Distributors Ltd. The following year, known as De Beers, a dedicated research laboratory was set up in Johannesburg. In 1953, the first synthesis of diamond was achieved by a high-pressure, high-temperature process. In 1960, such processes were commercialised and production of synthetic diamonds started in South Africa and in Shannon three years later in 1963.

As the Shannon operation flourished, the workforce grew to about 800.

In 1969 the company added new diamond materials which broadened its international markets. Over the next 10 years it developed more industrial diamond products at Shannon and South Africa, making it a world leader in the field.

In 1989 another breakthrough was achieved when the group started to make synthetic diamonds using a process known as chemical vapour deposition (CVD).

The CVD diamond is now a hugely important industrial tool.

Last year Element Six began to set up a new structure for its worldwide operation and it became increasingly clear that the Irish operation at Shannon had costs way out of line with sister plants in other parts of the world.