Leadership & People

Arkema Plans Further Restructuring of its Vinyls Business

Arkema (Paris) has announced further steps to improve the competitiveness of its vinyls business, the least profitable of its three segments. The restructuring involves the closure of its aluminum chloride manufacturing plant at Jarrie, France and of vinyl chloride co-polymer and vinyl acetate co-polymer production at Saint Auban, France. Aluminum chloride, used as catalyst in pharmaceutical and chemical synthesis, will cease to be produced at Jarrie on June 30, 2009, leading to 73 job losses. Arkema says, however that it has identified solutions for more than 70% of the people involved. Early retirement packages for the Jarrie site, entirely financed by the company, will be negotiated with the trade unions, the company says. Following the closure of the Saint-Auban co-polymers facilities, the site will be refocused to produce polyvinyl chloride (PVC) paste, trichloroethane 1,1,1, as well as hydrochloric acid from recycled chlorinated waste for third party customers. The company is studying plans to increase PVC paste capacity at the site.

Arkema also plans to create Arkema Interservices, as part of the Saint-Auban restructuring, which would provide industrial services and utilities for the whole site, including third parties, particularly newcomers interested in making photovoltaic silicon. The restructuring of this site will inolve the transfer of 130 jobs to Arkema Interservices and the loss of 96 positions. Meanwhile Alphacan, a subsidiary making PVC profiles, plans to close the Hasparren, France site, one of its four manufacturing sites in France, leading to 37 job losses. Arkema says 12 positions in Alphacan's profiles business will be created at the remaining French sites.

This latest program follows a major restructuring in Arkema's vinyls operations inititiated in 2005, which involved capital expenditure of €117 million ($148.3 million) and aimed to improve Arkema's competitiveness in the business. This program has now been completed.
 
Separately, Arkema says it plans to centralize its procurement services at Lyon, France. At present, this is carried out by purchasing departments of the individual sites, except for the Saint-Fons, Pierre-Benite, and Balan, France sites, whose procurement was pooled within the Rhone procurement center in January 2007. The aim of the centralized procurement is to take advantage of the benefits gained by purchasing bigger volumes. Arkema says it expects annual savings of €35 million in the purchasing of goods and services in France over the next three years. The project will lead to 41 job losses and the creation of 24 positions in the Lyon region, the company says.  

By Natasha Alperowicz

Source: Chemical Week