Lonza will shut down its biocide plant in Swords, Ireland, in June as part of a corporate cost-cutting effort, the company announced Thursday in its first quarter business report.
The company informed the Swords sites 32 employees and 11 contracted staff in March that the plant will be closed as part of Lonzas effort to streamline its global manufacturing footprint. The Swords site has experienced a low capacity utilization for some time with no foreseeable change to this trend, the company stated as its reason for closing the site.
By deadline, Lonza did not respond to Lube Reports requests for comment.
The Basel, Switzerland-based firm did not publicly disclose first quarter numbers in its business report, but announced that while the pharma, biotech, and specialty ingredients segments delivered solid results, the Swords site – which makes biocides used in metalworking fluids and marine anti-fouling paints – had been underperforming for some time.
Lonza pointed out that all of the Swords sites operations will be transferred to two of the companys existing facilities in Rochester, N.Y., in the United States, and Suzhou, in the Jiangsu province of China. With our two larger, well established sites in Rochester and Suzhou, global demand can be met effectively in the years to come, the company said.
In 2011, Lonza acquired the Swords plant when it acquired Norwalk, Conn.-based biocides maker Arch Chemicals in a $1.4 billion shares transaction.