DuPont’s interim CEO Edward Breen, who took the helm following the resignation of long-time CEO Ellen Kullman in mid-October, has lost no time in streamlining the chemical giant’s activities.

The changes, which will become effective on Jan. 1, 2016, will create greater efficiency and enhanced capabilities while improving economies of scale and leading to more effective deployment of capital, the US group said. The number of reporting segments will be left unchanged at six.

Plans call for the Packaging & Industrial Polymers business unit to be combined with the Performance Polymers unit into a Performance Materials reporting segment, to be headed by Patrick E. Lindner, who currently heads Performance Polymers. Products include polyamide and polyester resins.

The Protection Technologies unit, which encompasses the high-tech Aramid fiber among other products, will be combined with Building Innovations into a single business unit that will be called Protection and headed by Rose Lee. It will be part of the existing Safety & Protection segment, which also includes Sustainable Solutions.

DuPont meanwhile has completed the sale of its chloroprene rubber business at La Place, Louisiana, USA, to Japan’s Denka Performance Elastomer. The deal, which was announced in December last year, was finalized on Oct. 31.

Denka said it successfully started up the chloroprene rubber plant at the site on Nov. 1. The US plant is the second chloroprene rubber facility for Denka which also operates a plant in Omi, Niigata prefecture.