The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Manufacturing Manufacture Of Chemicals And Pharamceuticals Manufacture Of Chemicals And Chemical Products 20.12 - Manufacture of dyes and pigments
108 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
17 March 2017
Employment effect (start)
1 September 2017
Foreseen end date
31 December 2017
Description
The chemical manufacturing company, Hunstman Corporation, has announced that it is closing its subsidiary, Tioxide, in Calais (Nord). The restructuring plan will lead to 108 job cuts. Abut 80% of the workforce is over 45 years old. A previous reorganisation in this plant that produces titanium dioxide was recorded in the ERM database in 2015 (160 job reductions).
The US group Hunstman has decided to invest USD 15 million (EUR 14.7 million) to increase the competitiveness of its pigment activities that lead to the reorganisation of its production plants. The group reached a profit of about $90 millions in 2016 and employs 50,000 people worldwide. The common front of trade unions (CFE-CGC, CGT, Unsa) denounces the weakness of the public authorities' support even if the regional authorities have paid EUR 11.4 million to finance a tailor sized infrastructure for the plant in the port of Calais. The site was created in 1967.
Since 2000, social plans have succeeded in decreasing employment level in this plant that used to employ up to 650 people. The mayor of the city of Calais will ask the group to finance a "revitalisation" of the site as it has done in 2015 when it paid EUR 650,000 to the economic local agency and to the HR consultancy firm BPI group to facilitate the reemployment of redundant employees. The mayor will also ask the Government to support financially the employment area in the same proportion it has done for the closure of the Whirlpool plant of Amiens (290 job cuts) that will be closed in 2018 (220 millions of local investments).
Sources
17 March 2017: France 3 Haut de France
18 March 2017: La Voix du Nord
Citation
Eurofound (2017), Tioxide, Closure in France, factsheet number 90607, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/90607.
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