Dow plant to shut after buyer search fails

Jan 14 2010 by Sue Scott, Evening Gazette

A STRATEGICALLY critical plant in the UK chemical supply chain will make its last batch of ethylene oxide (EO) on Sunday.

Dow said it would follow through on plans to close the country’s only EO and glycol facility at Wilton after it failed to find a buyer for the business or its assets.

It will now raze the site to the ground and restore the land on which it stands, wiping out any hope of finding a successor and sealing the fate of the nearby Croda surfectants plant, which was its principle customer.

Unions severely criticised the company for not allowing more time for a buyer to come forward, but ironically the year-long decommissioning and remediation process could create more work locally than the plant has sustained in the ix months since Dow announced its intentions in June.

The company said it was still hoping to redeploy a number of the 55 staff on site.

Confirmation that the shut-down would begin came as a newly formed taskforce, set up late last year in response to growing pressure to address the problems gripping Wilton, got its feet under the table.

Headed by former ICI executive and chairman of the North East Process Cluster (NEPIC), Bob Coxan, it will look at building a new order for Wilton and its associated North Tees site.

Stan Higgins, chief executive of NEPIC said the Dow closure could cost the country up to a billion in lost trade.

“EO is used for detergent and it’s a material that cannot be imported in vast quantities because it’s hazardous to transport. Therefore the balance of payments in the UK will be significantly hit - it could be approaching £1bn.