Economic headwinds buffet industrial chemists

Shintech’s recent announcement that it will spend $3.4 billion to expand vinyl chemical capacity in Louisiana seems like another sign that the US chemical industry, powered by low costs for energy and natural gas, has a great future ahead of it. That may be true, but the prevailing economic winds and the news from other, less prominent, companies cast a dimmer light on the future for chemists who work in the industry.Shintech, a unit of the Japanese firm Shin-Etsu, will build three plants near Baton Rouge to make raw materials for polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. Shin-Etsu is the world’s largest producer of PVC and has focused its expansion plans on the US. A press release from Louisiana Economic Development touts the area’s skilled workers and dependable, large-scale power supply.The news is not as good in Lockport, New York, near Buffalo. There, VanDeMark Chemical is shutting down a phosgene derivatives plant by May 25. The company put out no public announcement, but a March 4 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice it was required to file with the state says 69 workers will be out of a job.Similarly, PMC Biogenix, a maker of oleochemicals, is shuttering its facility in Memphis, Tennessee—also with no public announcement. The firm’s March 3 WARN notice says 172 workers will lose their jobs effective April 26. At least one law firm is investigating if PMC Biogenix provided the 60 days’ notice required by the WARN Act.These two plants employ a total of 241 people,