Plant closures: Westlake to close BPA site in Netherlands
In view of a declining business environment in Europe, US-based Westlake Corp. will end all operations at its site in Pernis, Netherlands site, resulting in the loss of 230 jobs.
The company said it will shut down its bisphenol A (BPA) and liquid epoxy resin plants at the site. Westlake will also not restart its allyl chloride and epichlorohydrin units at Pernis that it mothballed in July 2024.
The Pernis BPA plant has a capacity of 150,000 tonnes/year, and the site’s liquid epoxy resin unit has a capacity of 100,000 tonnes/year, according to Westlake.
The company adds it plans to continue supplying customers in Europe from its liquid epoxy resins and BPA production capacity at Deer Park, Texas.
Westlake said the site closure will take place in 2025 after consultations with local works councils and unions.
The company expects to incur total pretax costs of about EUR190 million, with costs related to closing the facility resulting in of EUR30 million as well as charges for environmental remediation and other plant shutdown costs of approximately EUR160 million.
In 2024, Westlake, along with two other European epoxy resin producers, Olin Corp. and Spolchemie AS, had requested the European Commission to conduct an antidumping investigation into imports of epoxy resins from China, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
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