April 2009
Welcome to the blog. Our aim is to share up-to-date news and views related to chemicals manufacturing.
30th April
Today it was turn of the NW of England to suffer as Croda announced the closure of it's Bromborough factory with the loss of 115 jobs and bringing to an end 150 years' of chemical production at that site. The site manufactures commodity and industrial speciality chemicals.
Press reports indicate a total cash closure cost of £10M
As we know from experience, it is essential that all aspects of a closure process are carefully managed in order to ensure that costs are controlled whilst helpomg secure positive transitions for the impacted employees.
29th April
On the day that a local Member of Parliament, Ashok Kumar MP, asked questions about government support for the UK Chemical Industry at Prime Minister's Questions, Elementis has announced the closure of it's Eaglescliffe (UK) Chromium plant. The site, the last of its kind in the UK will close in June with the loss of 100 jobs (and potentially more at its supplier and customer sites).
Our research has found that approximately 400 chemical plants remain in the UK but are closing at a rate of 20 per year. Once these businesses leave the UK, it is highly unlikely that they will ever return. It is believed that for every 1 job lost directly in the chemical industry another 8 are lost somewhere along the supply chain
28th April
The UK Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) seemed to be consulting its crystal ball last year when it organised a two-day technical meeting entitled Biocontainment, Biosafety and Biosecurity 2009.
The meeting takes place this week and undoubtedly the swine flu outbreak will dominate discussions. You will see from the link that IChemE’s advance publicity referred to the 'near certainty of an influenza-type pandemic in the future'.
Good prediction but let's hope they don't make too many more along those lines!
http://www.icheme.org/biosecurity/
27th April
General Motors have announced plans to axe more dealerships and up to 23000 jobs as the struggling US carmaker races against the clock to avoid seeking bankruptcy protection. The company has the major challenge of meeting a June 1st deadline set by President Obama to restructure the ailing company
This spells bad news for the chemical industry, with each new car using an average of 150kg of plastics in the manufacturing process.
25th April
CSB investigators have this week issued preliminary findings on the large explosion and fire that took the lives of two workers at the Bayer CropScience plant in West Virginia last August. The CSB point to a number of lapses in process safety management, noting that inadequate training on new equipment and the overriding of critical safety systems were particular issues.
Whilst PSM is increasingly becoming a key priority in many chemical companies, there is still considerable scope for improvement in our industry.
http://www.chemsafety.gov/index.cfm?folder=news_releases&page=news&NEWS_ID=465