Post by Dean Robinson on Feb 19, 2008 10:57:53 GMT -5
Sarnia to lose pioneering plant
Sun, February 10, 2008
The Chemical Valley began with Polymer, now known as Lanxess.
By CHIP MARTIN, SUN MEDIA
lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2008/02/10/4837954-sun.html
The loss of high-paying manufacturing jobs and a plant closing is tough for any city, but for Sarnia the latest shutdown is historic and goes to the heart of the city's identity.
The move has also brought calls for Ontario -- its manufacturing sector battered by the high Canadian dollar and other costs -- to reduce the tax burden on industry and help it to cope with high energy costs.
German petrochemical giant Lanxess is cutting 270 of its 750 jobs in Sarnia over two years and closing its butyl artificial rubber plant there.
The company cited high energy costs compared to France, where it will move its rubber-producing line.
Once featured on the back of the $10 bill, the former Polysar rubber plant was built in 1943, the birth of Sarnia's string of Chemical Valley industries.
The plant is the legacy of an Allied effort during the Second World War to produce artificial rubber for military needs after the Japanese overran Asia's natural rubber fields.
Rookie Sarnia MPP Bob Bailey is demanding the Ontario government help save area jobs by reducing the tax burden on industry and helping it deal with high energy costs.
One former Sarnia NDP MPP, Bob Huget, now Ontario vice-president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, which represents Lanxess employees, has voiced similar concerns.
Huget has warned there will be more layoffs unless Premier Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government takes a stand on the high cost of energy.
Bailey said he's heard no government response to his demand but is determined to push the issue to save jobs.
"And I want to ensure these employees have every opportunity for retraining," he said.
Bailey said plant officials complained energy costs in Ontario are 20 per cent higher than in France.
The jobs being lost include 50 salaried employees who have already accepted early retirement packages.
Lanxess, a company spun off by the plant's earlier German multinational owner, plans to keep open its other Sarnia facilities, employing about 480.
The butyl plant being shut transformed Sarnia into what for decades was Canada's leading petrochemical centre.
Butyl is used in car tires, chewing gum, and rubber caps and stoppers in the drug industry. Demand for butyl is soaring mainly because of the booming Asian market. Many middle-class Chinese and Indians can now afford cars, driving up tire production.
Built for $50 million, the plant began operating in 1944 and was credited with helping the Allies to win the war.
The synthetic rubber it produced was used in a variety of military applications, including tires and aircraft parts.
The operation was the first of many petrochemical plants attracted to the region because of the large Imperial Oil refinery, along with water, rail and road access to major markets.
Mayor Mike Bradley called the closing "a bombshell" that marks the end of an era.
He said it underlines the need to continue diversifying the Sarnia-Lambton economy.
---
AN INDUSTRIAL LANDMARK
- When the Japanese captured natural rubber supplies during the Second World War, Canada and its allies scrambled to create a synthetic rubber plant to fuel war needs.
- In 1942 a federal Crown corporation, Polymer Corp., was created. Production began 14 months later in what became the Chemical Valley, for years Canada's major centre of petrochemical production.
- In 1963 Polymer bought a butyl plant in Belgium.
- In the 1980s, the company, by then known as Polysar, opened a second Sarnia plant. Ottawa later sold the company to Canada's Nova Corp.
- German multinational Bayer AG bought the plant in 1990 from Nova.
- In 2004, Bayer spun off the company as Lanxess, a German-based plastic, chemical and rubber maker.
Sun, February 10, 2008
The Chemical Valley began with Polymer, now known as Lanxess.
By CHIP MARTIN, SUN MEDIA
lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2008/02/10/4837954-sun.html
The loss of high-paying manufacturing jobs and a plant closing is tough for any city, but for Sarnia the latest shutdown is historic and goes to the heart of the city's identity.
The move has also brought calls for Ontario -- its manufacturing sector battered by the high Canadian dollar and other costs -- to reduce the tax burden on industry and help it to cope with high energy costs.
German petrochemical giant Lanxess is cutting 270 of its 750 jobs in Sarnia over two years and closing its butyl artificial rubber plant there.
The company cited high energy costs compared to France, where it will move its rubber-producing line.
Once featured on the back of the $10 bill, the former Polysar rubber plant was built in 1943, the birth of Sarnia's string of Chemical Valley industries.
The plant is the legacy of an Allied effort during the Second World War to produce artificial rubber for military needs after the Japanese overran Asia's natural rubber fields.
Rookie Sarnia MPP Bob Bailey is demanding the Ontario government help save area jobs by reducing the tax burden on industry and helping it deal with high energy costs.
One former Sarnia NDP MPP, Bob Huget, now Ontario vice-president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, which represents Lanxess employees, has voiced similar concerns.
Huget has warned there will be more layoffs unless Premier Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government takes a stand on the high cost of energy.
Bailey said he's heard no government response to his demand but is determined to push the issue to save jobs.
"And I want to ensure these employees have every opportunity for retraining," he said.
Bailey said plant officials complained energy costs in Ontario are 20 per cent higher than in France.
The jobs being lost include 50 salaried employees who have already accepted early retirement packages.
Lanxess, a company spun off by the plant's earlier German multinational owner, plans to keep open its other Sarnia facilities, employing about 480.
The butyl plant being shut transformed Sarnia into what for decades was Canada's leading petrochemical centre.
Butyl is used in car tires, chewing gum, and rubber caps and stoppers in the drug industry. Demand for butyl is soaring mainly because of the booming Asian market. Many middle-class Chinese and Indians can now afford cars, driving up tire production.
Built for $50 million, the plant began operating in 1944 and was credited with helping the Allies to win the war.
The synthetic rubber it produced was used in a variety of military applications, including tires and aircraft parts.
The operation was the first of many petrochemical plants attracted to the region because of the large Imperial Oil refinery, along with water, rail and road access to major markets.
Mayor Mike Bradley called the closing "a bombshell" that marks the end of an era.
He said it underlines the need to continue diversifying the Sarnia-Lambton economy.
---
AN INDUSTRIAL LANDMARK
- When the Japanese captured natural rubber supplies during the Second World War, Canada and its allies scrambled to create a synthetic rubber plant to fuel war needs.
- In 1942 a federal Crown corporation, Polymer Corp., was created. Production began 14 months later in what became the Chemical Valley, for years Canada's major centre of petrochemical production.
- In 1963 Polymer bought a butyl plant in Belgium.
- In the 1980s, the company, by then known as Polysar, opened a second Sarnia plant. Ottawa later sold the company to Canada's Nova Corp.
- German multinational Bayer AG bought the plant in 1990 from Nova.
- In 2004, Bayer spun off the company as Lanxess, a German-based plastic, chemical and rubber maker.