Dow Wolff Cellulosics closes HEC Plant in Aratu

25 Dec '07

3 min read

Dow Wolff Cellulosics announced the Dow facility producing CELLOSIZE Hydroxyethyl Cellulose (HEC) Polymers at Aratu, Brazil will be closed in the first quarter of 2008 because it is not globally competitive in providing solutions to customers.

The business exhaustively evaluated all options to maintain the plant, but ultimately decided to halt operations and decommission the 5,000 MT (~11 MM lbs) plant due to high structural and raw material costs. Dow Wolff Cellulosics has a strong position as a worldwide provider of HEC polymers and can supply customers globally from other sites in the USA and Belgium.

“Dow Wolff Cellulosics is prioritizing its expenditures and investments on break-through improvements and technologies that will enable long-term customer success,” said Martin Sonntag, general manager of Dow Wolff Cellulosics.

“Rather than continuing to invest in non-competitive assets, we have chosen to shut one down, and apply resources towards the creation of next-generation products and sustainable manufacturing positions across HEC polymers and our cellulosics portfolio.”

The cellulosics 'envelope' is continuing to see an overall growth rate of more than 6%. Dow Wolff Cellulosics intends to remain an industry leader for HEC polymers by focusing more on future customer/application needs, other strategic assets and effective management of the costs to provide leading solutions.

“The shut down does not reflect the excellent performance of the Dow experts who have operated the Aratu asset reliably and safely for many years, but rather illustrates ever changing market dynamics as the plant was originally built according to different market conditions,” said Sonntag.

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