Tweet
This is a plant next door to us- or was
Plant cuts 220 employees
By Nathaniel Lukefahr
The Facts
Published February 13, 2009
LIVERPOOL — Equistar Chemicals, a LyondellBasell subsidiary, cut 220 employees Thursday from its parent company’s Chocolate Bayou complex after leaders approved a long-term closure of the site’s olefins plant.
Between 30 and 40 employees will remain on-site to perform maintenance and security measures, dropping LyondellBasell’s Brazoria County presence to about 80 workers, spokesman David Roznowski said. The company’s 40-person polymers facility near the olefins unit will continue to operate.
“As you can imagine, it’s all a result of the economy and a lack of demand for ethylene,” Roznowski said.
In November, the site employed about 400 people, including both full-time employees and contractors.
Plant management and senior company leaders broke the news to employees Thursday morning, Roznowski said. Employees were offered severance packages, but Roznowski declined to release what they included, citing company policy.
“Our work force took it like the true professionals they are,” Roznowski said.
LyondellBasell shuttered the plant indefinitely Jan. 2, about three weeks after idling it, with plans to bring it online after product demand increased. But the economy continued to stall, and the Houston-based company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection five days later.
On Wednesday, LyondellBasell announced the temporary shuttering of polyethylene plants in France and the United Kingdom, also citing low product demand.
“Although demand for polyethylene has significantly improved compared to the fourth quarter of last year, normal patterns have not been achieved yet,” said Richard Roudeix, LyondellBasell’s vice president for polyethylene in Europe, in a prepared statement. “This measure is another step in our efforts to continue our business in a way that is economically reasonable.”
The company had kept Chocolate Bayou workers employed throughout the process, “but with the long-term idling, it didn’t make any sense monetarily to keep people employed,” Roznowski said.
“Current projections for ethylene demand indicate that we can meet the needs of our customers without this plant in operation,” said Vaughn Deasy, vice president of LyondellBasell base chemicals, in an e-mailed statement. “We are assessing various alternatives for the olefins plant to preserve the greatest value for the company. While it is difficult to release this skilled work force, we cannot maintain staffing at previous levels while the plant remains indefinitely idled.”
Equistar Chemicals notified the bankruptcy court Thursday about the decision, Roznowski said.
“Anything we do right now is subject to bankruptcy court, so we filed a motion,” he said. “But, I can’t really get into that one.”
LyondellBasell, through its global subsidiaries, has 11 olefins plants worldwide with an annual capacity of 14.9 billion pounds of ethylene and 8.7 billion pounds of propylene. Locations include Channelview, La Porte, Chocolate Bayou and Corpus Christi; Clinton, Iowa; Morris, Ill.; Wesseling and Muenchsmunster, Germany; and Berre, France.
The Chocolate Bayou olefins unit had a capacity of 1.2 billion pounds per year of ethylene and 725 million pounds of propylene.
Company officials don’t know when the site could come back online.
“Due to the market and our ability to supply all of our customers from our other sites, it’s hard to say ‘what if,’” Roznowski said.
Plant cuts 220 employees
By Nathaniel Lukefahr
The Facts
Published February 13, 2009
LIVERPOOL — Equistar Chemicals, a LyondellBasell subsidiary, cut 220 employees Thursday from its parent company’s Chocolate Bayou complex after leaders approved a long-term closure of the site’s olefins plant.
Between 30 and 40 employees will remain on-site to perform maintenance and security measures, dropping LyondellBasell’s Brazoria County presence to about 80 workers, spokesman David Roznowski said. The company’s 40-person polymers facility near the olefins unit will continue to operate.
“As you can imagine, it’s all a result of the economy and a lack of demand for ethylene,” Roznowski said.
In November, the site employed about 400 people, including both full-time employees and contractors.
Plant management and senior company leaders broke the news to employees Thursday morning, Roznowski said. Employees were offered severance packages, but Roznowski declined to release what they included, citing company policy.
“Our work force took it like the true professionals they are,” Roznowski said.
LyondellBasell shuttered the plant indefinitely Jan. 2, about three weeks after idling it, with plans to bring it online after product demand increased. But the economy continued to stall, and the Houston-based company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection five days later.
On Wednesday, LyondellBasell announced the temporary shuttering of polyethylene plants in France and the United Kingdom, also citing low product demand.
“Although demand for polyethylene has significantly improved compared to the fourth quarter of last year, normal patterns have not been achieved yet,” said Richard Roudeix, LyondellBasell’s vice president for polyethylene in Europe, in a prepared statement. “This measure is another step in our efforts to continue our business in a way that is economically reasonable.”
The company had kept Chocolate Bayou workers employed throughout the process, “but with the long-term idling, it didn’t make any sense monetarily to keep people employed,” Roznowski said.
“Current projections for ethylene demand indicate that we can meet the needs of our customers without this plant in operation,” said Vaughn Deasy, vice president of LyondellBasell base chemicals, in an e-mailed statement. “We are assessing various alternatives for the olefins plant to preserve the greatest value for the company. While it is difficult to release this skilled work force, we cannot maintain staffing at previous levels while the plant remains indefinitely idled.”
Equistar Chemicals notified the bankruptcy court Thursday about the decision, Roznowski said.
“Anything we do right now is subject to bankruptcy court, so we filed a motion,” he said. “But, I can’t really get into that one.”
LyondellBasell, through its global subsidiaries, has 11 olefins plants worldwide with an annual capacity of 14.9 billion pounds of ethylene and 8.7 billion pounds of propylene. Locations include Channelview, La Porte, Chocolate Bayou and Corpus Christi; Clinton, Iowa; Morris, Ill.; Wesseling and Muenchsmunster, Germany; and Berre, France.
The Chocolate Bayou olefins unit had a capacity of 1.2 billion pounds per year of ethylene and 725 million pounds of propylene.
Company officials don’t know when the site could come back online.
“Due to the market and our ability to supply all of our customers from our other sites, it’s hard to say ‘what if,’” Roznowski said.
Comment