Akron, Ohio ? Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. executives said Thursday that cutting another 1,200 jobs worldwide would help the nation’s largest tiremaker cut costs as it battles rising rubber and other raw material prices.

The job cuts are in addition to 2,600 jobs eliminated earlier this year and previously announced plans to cut 1,100 positions when the company closes a tire plant in Huntsville, Ala., next month.

The latest administrative and manufacturing cuts will be made at various Goodyear locations in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Chief executive officer Robert J. Keegan said Goodyear planned to close the Huntsville plant Dec. 5.

The job cuts, along with cuts to employee pensions and benefits, are expected to save the company $350 million next year, Keegan said.

Goodyear said Thursday it also would raise prices 2 percent to 3 percent on tires sold to consumers and commercial customers beginning Dec. 1 to help offset raw material costs that were $280 million more than expected so far this year.

Those costs for rubber and other materials were expected to rise another 5 percent to 7 percent next year.

“Unfortunately, we are not expecting any relief in 2004,” Keegan said.

The cost-cutting details come a day after Goodyear reported a third quarter loss due to charges for staff reductions, manufacturing consolidations and a loss in its troubled North American tire segment.

That segment, Goodyear’s largest business, had an operating loss of $31.8 million in the third quarter, compared with operating income of nearly $9 million last year.

The company’s stock closed down 11 cents to $6.37 in trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Goodyear makes tires, engineered rubber products and chemicals at more than 90 plants in 28 countries, including a plant in Topeka. It employs about 92,000 people.