Dec. 9--YOUNGSVILLE -- Xerium Technologies, which makes equipment used in paper production, will shut down an Australian clothing facility and suspend building a facility in Vietnam. The moves will eliminate about 6 percent of Xerium's jobs and continues the troubled company's reorganization strategy.

Xerium, which narrowly avoided bankruptcy this year, will redirect production to existing plants. The moves will cost up to $10 million in restructuring costs, including $5 million to $6 million in severance payments and $3 million to $4 million in impairment costs. The company will cut 215 salaried and hourly workers in Australia and Vietnam.

The corporate restructuring follows other cost-cutting measures, most recently eliminating pensions for several thousand workers worldwide and eliminating health care coverage for U.S. retirees and their dependents. Xerium employs about 3,700 people worldwide, including about 60 in Youngsville.

In June, Xerium skirted bankruptcy by restructuring $660 million in debt and cutting its dividend for investors.

Xerium's shares remained flat at 83 cents Monday. The stock is down 84 percent in the past year.

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