LyondellBasell announces LDPE plant closure on demand slump

The Dutch-based company said 50 jobs would be cut as a result of the closure at the factory at Carrington.

“Taking into account the current market environment and our future projections, we’ve concluded that the plant is no longer economically viable,”​ said Tassilo Bader, LyondellBasell senior vice president, olefins and polyethylene, Europe and International. “We are able to meet projected customer demand for LDPE with product supplies from our other LDPE facilities.”​

Demand problems​

LDPE is used in a number of applications, including food packaging and plastic films.​LyondellBasell is the world’s third largest petrochemicals firm and is also a major supplier to the pharmaceutical industry. Its US operations are currently under bankruptcy protection.

Company spokesman Waldemar Oldenburger told FoodProductionDaily.com: “There has been a drop for LDPE - and demand for polyethylene continues to be affected by the global crisis. There have been signs of improvement in the last quarter but these have been outweighed by increased imports from the ​Middle East​.”​

World-scale focus​

He said the UK closure would help the LyondellBasell optimise its global operations and it was focusing on “world-scale”​ plants in Germany and one in Berre, France, which has a nameplate capacity in excess of 300 KT per year.

The spokesman would not comment on whether the annual 300KT capacity was the cut-off point for the company when assessing economic viability. But he confirmed that the 185 KT annual capacity at Carrington was insufficient to keep it running.

“The medium term polyethylene outlook is still poor for the European sector due to the continuing financial situation and a strong increase in world-wide capacity of polyethylene,”​ he added.

The 210 KT per year polypropylene plant located at the Carrington site will not be affected, the company confirmed.