Solutia Continues to Focus on Core Business Units

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Since emerging from bankruptcy less than a year ago, Solutia Incorporated (NYSE:SOA) (St. Louis, Missouri) has maintained focus on investment plans for growth products and core business units. Solutia is planning a round of investments including upgrades, process retrofits and debottlenecks of its nylon fibers plant located in Cantonment, Florida, near Pensacola. Industrial Info is tracking an estimated $25 million in future capital and maintenance projects planned for the Pensacola plant as part of the North American Plant Database. This is almost one-third of the total future spending currently identified for Solutia.

Solutia has announced plans to seek "strategic alternatives" for its nylons business that would include key pieces or all of the very profitable Pensacola plant site and others. Demand for nylon has continued along a strong growth curve with international markets providing much of the support for the production of consumer and automotive goods.

Growth in specialty chemicals and performance materials is where Solutia appears to be focusing most of its long-term objectives. Supporting this goal are significant investments that are already under way and several more in the planning phase for Solutia's chemical plants in Texas and Alabama. Solutia's Chocolate Bayou Plant in Alvin, Texas, and plants in both Anniston and Decatur, Alabama, are locations that will play key roles in the company's plans in the specialty chemicals sector. An estimated $20 million in project activity is currently being tracked for these plant sites.

Like so many companies in the Chemical Processing Industry (CPI), Solutia has passed along price increases for key products during recent weeks to help battle the escalating cost of energy, feedstock and transportation. Controlling costs isn't Solutia's only challenge. Like many of its peers in the CPI, the company is combating patent infringements and questionable product imports by competitors from abroad.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.