Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp. will close its Reading, Pa., extrusion plant by the end of August and relocate production to Mickleton, N.J.
The firm said the shutdown will cut costs amid increasing competition. The Reading facility makes thermoplastic tubing, pipe, rod stock and specialty profiles. It employs about 60. Brian Pickner, general manager of the company's industrial markets business unit of fluid systems, said the restructuring follows the acquisition of several plants during the past two years.
The Reading facility was part of Saint-Gobain's Acutech acquisition in April 1999.
Saint-Gobain spokeswoman Dotty Wackerman said her firm will select the best equipment from Reading for relocation to Mickleton and will sell the rest. The Reading operation processes a range of resins, including fluoropolymers, polyolefins, nylon, polycarbonate, polysulfone and thermoplastic elastomers. Saint-Gobain also does thermoplastic extrusion in Akron, Mantua and Aurora, Ohio. It has silicone extrusion plants that make medical tubing.
Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, based in Valley Forge, Pa., had estimated North American pipe, tubing and profile sales of $175 million in 2000. Overall the company has 55 plants in 16 countries. Its industrial fluid systems business supplies tubing and hose assemblies to chemical and other industrial markets.
The pipe, tubing and profile company is a subsidiary of Paris-based Cie. de Saint-Gobain, an industrial conglomerate with annual sales of $26.6 billion in 2000. Other Saint-Gobain businesses include plastic pipe and profile major CertainTeed Corp. of Valley Forge, flat glass, packaging, insulation, abrasives and ceramics.