Joseph M Gingo, Chairman, President and CEO, A Schulman.
AKRON, US: A Schulman Inc will realign its North American engineered plastics business to meet requirements of high-value-added compounding market. The company plans to close its plant in Nashville, Tennessee and consolidate manufacturing to its remaining North American manufacturing sites.
The Nashville facility is expected to close no later than February 29, 2012, the end of the company’s fiscal 2012 second quarter. Construction in Akron is expected to begin next month, with operations to commence by early March 2012.
“We have taken several actions to replicate our profitable European engineered plastics business model in North America by eliminating US commodity capacity and shifting our focus to more profitable technical compounds,” said Joseph M Gingo, Chairman, President and CEO, A Schulman.
Four production lines at Nashville facility will be shut down and production will be moved to Akron and Bellevue, Ohio, facilities. The Akron plant will be enhanced to produce highly technical and higher-value specialty compounds for the North American market. As part of this effort, the company anticipates investing approximately $7 million to create technical compounding capabilities in Akron facility.
“We are aligning our assets to optimize use of capacity and capitalize on growth opportunities. We see uncertainty in the economy and flat demand, and believe these proactive steps are prudent at this time,” added Gingo.
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