ARLANXEO plans to close rubber production at Port Jerome in France

LONDON (ICIS)–Synthetic rubber producer ARLANXEO Elastomeres plans to cease operations at its Port Jerome site in France, the company said.

An information and consultation period was launched on Thursday, 2 October with the Works Council in Port Jerome. A final decision regarding the projected closure could be taken at the end of the mandatory consultation period.

Stephan van Santbrink, ARLANXEO CEO, said: “The European chemical industry continues to face persistent weak demand and declining competitiveness driven by rising costs, unbalanced global markets, and increased regulatory pressure.

“These conditions have generated a significant burden on the sector across the regional value chain. ARLANXEO has not been an exception to these challenges.

“The Port Jerome site has remained in a structurally loss-making position. Despite numerous improvement efforts, we do not foresee a viable path to a sustained structural improvement.

“We recognize the impact a potential closure may have on our employees, and we regret the need to consider these steps,” the CEO added.

ARLANXEO intends to minimize the impact of the intended closure by closely co-operating with all affected internal and external stakeholders, it said.

Upstream, ExxonMobil closed its butadiene (BD) and cracker site last year in Port Jerome, which included a nameplate capacity of 90,000 tonnes/year of BD.

ARLANXEO is a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Aramco.

According to ICIS data, the company has a production nameplate capacity of 100,000 tonnes for polybutadiene rubber (PBR) and 40,000 tonnes of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR). ARLANXEO Elastomeres also has a manufacturing site in La Wantzenau, in France.