The End of an Era: Chemical Plant Closures of 2007

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--As 2007 ends, so does the production of several Chemical Processing Industry (CPI) plants. Approximately 50 chemical plants have permanently stopped manufacturing in the United States and Canada. Over the past five years, the CPI has experienced nearly 100 closures annually. As the research staff at Industrial Info continues to monitor the North American Industrial Database, additional closures from 2007 are likely to be discovered, potentially increasing the number of closures even closer to recent historical levels.

Over the course of the last year, 10 of the plants that closed employed 100 or more people. The largest of this group was a plant owned by Grifftex Chemicals (Opelika, Alabama), a Westpoint Stevens Incorporated company. Recent structural changes in the Westpoint Stevens organization resulted in the closure of several plants, including this 340-employee site. This closure was the only CPI plant to shut down in Alabama last year.

Although Alabama only had one recorded closure, the Southeast market region saw five closures, about average for all regions across the country. Out of the five plant closures in the Southeast, Tennessee was home to three, including those of Accel Color Corporation (Knoxville), Lucite International Incorporated (Memphis) and Velsicol Chemical Corporation (Chattanooga).

As technology continues to advance, the CPI must strive to keep up to date and remain competitive. Nearly half of the plants that closed their doors in the CPI this past year started commercial operation before 1970, including two before the turn of the 20th century. The formation and regulatory presence of the United States' Environmental Protection Agency and the industry's initiative to eliminate environmentally unsound technology combined with the riddance of inefficient production processes support these plant closures in many cases. An early look into 2008 shows 12 CPI plants that have already been identified as having scheduled closure dates, and this number is certain to grow.

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