Solutia Begins the New Year with New Unit Startup and Closures

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). In a continued effort to execute a reorganization plan and increase profitability, Solutia (OTC:SOLUQ) (Saint Louis, Missouri) is planning to complete the startup of a new specialty fluids unit during the first quarter of 2006 that was recently constructed at its Anniston, Alabama plant site. This new unit will ultimately replace an older existing operation located in the Saint Louis, Missouri, JF Queeny plant, which will be closed upon the commercial startup of the Anniston unit addition. See related Industry Alert titled " Solutia Hires Engineer and Prepares to Relocate Specialty Fluids Production to Alabama"

Solutia has closed several operations in recent years as part of its effort to reorganize and exit bankruptcy, while still providing the market with the premium products associated with its name. Solutia currently operates fifteen manufacturing plants located in the United States and Canada employing an estimated 4,500 people in which Industrialinfo.com is currently tracking over $20 million in future spending activity. Some of this spending will continue to be focused on the dismantlement or demolition of non-core business units or less profitable assets, such as an idle nylon fiber unit located in Cantonment, Florida, and a chlorobenzene asset in East Saint Louis at the William G Krummrich plant.

Click on the image at right to view a listing of Solutia's North American Plants.

Like most large industrial producers in today’s energy conscious economy, Solutia plans to execute energy reliability projects this year to tackle the growing concerns of increased energy costs. These investments will begin with significant boiler upgrades at its Indian Orchard, Massachusetts plant, including upgrades to process control systems, a new condensate return line, reverse osmosis unit and other reliability upgrades aimed at increasing efficiency and environmental compliance. Solutia’s CPFilms group will make several investments this year to increase production of coated film products including a possible warehouse addition in Fieldale, Virginia. Each of these projects are reported and updated as part of Industrialinfo.com’s North America Project Database.

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