Published: January 12, 2009 08:59 am      

Company to maintain Clinton operation

CLINTON — A spokesman for a local company says that it will continue to be open for business while its parent company restructures under Chapter 11.

Tom Nunheimer, regional public relations manager with LyondellBasell Industries, told the Clinton Herald that as with most of the global chemical industry, LyondellBasell’s business slowed down significantly during the last two quarters as many customers postponed orders and reduced inventories.

“While we anticipate this situation to be short term, LyondellBasell made the decision to file for Chapter 11 protection in order to provide the company with the time and resources necessary to facilitate an orderly restructuring and position the company for the business in the long term,” he said. “We are not going out of business, and we expect our day-to-day operations at our Clinton plant won’t change as a result of this filing. In fact, we continue to be busy making quality products and serving the needs of our customers.

“We think that once our restructuring is completed that we will be well positioned for success going forward as economic conditions improve.”

LyondellBasell Industries announced last week that its U.S. operations and one of its European holding companies have voluntarily filed to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

The company also announced that, pending court approval, it has made arrangements for up to $8 billion in debtor-in-possession financing to fund continuing operations. Of this total, $3.25 billion consists of new funding; $3.25 billion represents a refinancing of certain obligations under LyondellBasell’s existing senior secured credit facilities; and $1.515 billion represents replacement of existing working capital facilities.

The Clinton plant, formerly known as Equistar and which was merged as Lyondell with Basell in December 2007, manufactures plastic resins that serve as building blocks for a wide range of products such as leak-proof containers for milk, juice and household chemicals, packaging that protects food from spoilage and contamination and children’s toys. The Clinton plant, located on Anamosa Road, also recently completed modifications on two of its olefins furnaces to improve the plant’s energy efficiency.