October, 12 (nebusiness.co.uk) -- Dow confirmed today that it would continue to implement a shutdown of the country’s only ethylene oxide and glycol plant at Wilton as a 90-day consultation with workers came to an end and hopes of a sale receded.
The announcement was a formality in what has become a touchstone issue
for the UK petrochemicals industry and follows a meeting on Wednesday
between process industry and engineering chiefs to thrash out a
response to widespread criticism that the sector was not doing enough
to preserve vital infrastructure.
Fifty-five jobs at Dow
will go when the plant closes at the end of the year. The company said
there may be an opportunity to relocate some of those staff to other Dow
sites, three of which are on Teesside. “Our care is for our employees,”
said a spokesperson. She said there had been a “tremendous amount of
rumour” about a potential rescue but the company had not received any
formal approach, although it had “always been open to them”.
The company said it was co-operating with a scoping exercise by One
North East, which may yet come up with an alternative use for the site.
In a statement, it added: “Decisions to shut down a facility are not
taken lightly. A comprehensive review of potential options has been
conducted prior to and during the employee consultation period. Though
a workable solution was not identified, we still remain open to
alternatives.”
Dow
blamed several factors for the decision to close the EOEG plant when it
made the announcement in June, including the site’s “disadvantaged
input costs”.
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