El Segundo bioplastics manufacturer Cereplast Inc. said Wednesday it is reducing its workforce, giving some workers furloughs and adding new revenue.

The company is reducing its worldwide headcount to 17. Cereplast had 46 employees, according to its 2011 annual report filed in April last year. Its cost-cutting measures include a furlough for production employees.

The company, which supplies resin used to create environmentally friendly plastic packaging, is currently restructuring its operations after recent losses. Cereplast in November reported a third quarter net loss of nearly $10 million compared with a loss of $3.6 million during the same quarter the previous year.

The company ran into trouble in 2011 when the European debt crisis hit and two of its Italian distributors failed to pay Cereplast $8.6 million for their clients’ orders of bioresin.

Cereplast said in a statement that it also created liquidity by adding $500,000 in new revenue in the past six weeks.

The company’s stock, which trades on the OTC exchange, rose 17 percent to 3 cents a share at the close of trading Wednesday.