Sabic Innovative Plastics (Bergen op Zoom / The Netherlands; www.sabic-ip.com) has announced it wants to close its compounding plant at Thorndale, Pennsylvania, in the US, a legacy of its 2007 acquisition of the former GE Plastics. Management of the US offshoot has indicated that demand for the products, which include LNP-brand compounds based on polycarbonate, polyamide and other engineering polymers for use primarily in consumer electronics, is shifting towards Asia. No capacity figures for the Pennsylvania plant were named.

“Over the past several years, Sabic’s customer base, who purchase unique LNP compounds, is increasingly located in the Pacific, and this trend is expected to accelerate,” the company said in a statement. To meet demand from the consumer electronics industry in Asia, it said it needs local production and shorter lead times, while adding that flat demand in the US market has kept operating rates below capacity. Altogether, 51 workers would be affected by the shutdown, which could come in March 2016. The company is currently talking to its unions about conditions, with a decision expected to be reached by mid-December.

Along with expanding output in Asia-Pacific, the US Sabic subsidiary said it could potentially increase production at its sites in Columbus, Ohio / USA and at San Luis Potosi / Mexico. The decision to close Thorndale is not final, a company spokeswoman told local media, adding that the plant could be kept open if it appeared the market in the Americas was improving. Union leaders, however, said they were not optimistic. Sabic Innovative Plastics, which employs around 9,000 people worldwide, has its US headquarters at Pittsfield, Massachusetts.