Gulf Coast Polymer Compounding Plant is Scheduled to Close this Year

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). A. Schulman (NYSE: SHLM) (Akron, Ohio) plans to cease operations at its polymer dispersions plant located in Orange Texas by the end of August 2003. The 145,000 square foot plant began operating in 1959, and currently runs two production lines manufacturing 60 million pounds per year. The primary products produced at this location are black concentrates and thermoplastic olefins that are used predominately in the United States by the automotive industry.

The closure stems from steeper resin prices, competitive pressures, and decreased demand for engineered products. This closure will help to balance these issues by transferring its capacity to other North American plants and will decrease Schulman's North American manufacturing capacity by approximately 12 percent to roughly 440 million pounds to 500 million pounds per year. In addition to the other posing factors, the company has hopes of saving up to $7 million a year.

A. Schulman began operations in 1929 in Akron, Ohio and is an international supplier of high performance plastic compounds and resins with main products consisting of proprietary and custom formulated engineered plastic compounds, color concentrates and additives. Schulman has thirteen manufacturing plants in North America, Europe, Mexico and Asia with over 2,300 employees.

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