Reportedly, the closure is expected to result in the loss of 37 jobs at DSI. DSM has asked the local Works Council for advice on the planned closure.
The company will try to offer these employees an alternative within DSM. Employees for whom no alternative job can be found will be declared redundant at the moment when their job ceases to exist. The DSM LBV Supervision of Employment Plan as agreed with the trade unions at DSM Limburg will apply to all employees who will become redundant as a result of the closure, said the company.
DSI produces and sells intermediates for the automotive, food and pharmaceutical industries. The company said that with increasing competition from China and India, among other countries, prices and margins for these products have been under heavy pressure for a number of years. For this reason, a number of DSI production plants had already been closed in 2007 and the remaining facilities had been integrated with other DSM plants in order to make the business unit financially healthy.
The company has added that despite the strong efforts of DSI’s management and workforce, it proved impossible to make DSI structurally profitable, even after these measures.