Alside shuts down siding plant in Texas
FREEPORT, TEXAS - Associated Materials Inc., the parent of Alside Inc., will close a vinyl siding plant in Freeport by mid-January, laying off 106 workers, a local government official said.
The operation is called Freeport Vinyl Technologies.
Associated Materials, based in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, has notified the Texas Workforce Commission about its plans to close the siding factory, said Lee Cameron, Freeport Economic Development director.
The company opened the Freeport plant in 1999. Cameron, who helped Associated Materials pick the site, said the 200,000-square-foot building is an ideal site for vinyl extrusion - located near Shintech Inc.'s PVC resin plant in Freeport.
``That's one of the reasons they located here. They were right next door to Shintech,'' Cameron said in a Nov. 24 telephone interview. The site also has rail access.
Associated Materials did not return a Nov. 24 telephone call seeking comment.
Baltimore takes GI Plastek as tenant
NEWBURYPORT, MASS. - Custom molder GI Plastek will open a new facility in Baltimore on the site of a former public housing project, according to the city's economic development agency.
The company will create 60 jobs at the site, expected to open next year, according to a news release from the Baltimore Development Corp. Officials from the development group did not return several telephone calls. A GI Plastek official declined to comment.
GI Plastek, a maker of injection and reaction injection molded plastic parts, will be the anchor tenant in the new industrial park, called Hollander Ridge.
Baltimore-based Hollander Rock LLC won a bid Nov. 18 to develop the business park and plans to spend $32.1 million to construct five buildings totaling 511,500 square feet of manufacturing, office and retail space, according to Baltimore Development. Hollander Rock, comprised of four local real-estate developers, could not be reached for comment.
Baltimore officials had asked the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for approval to change the housing project into a business park, a process that began in October 2003. Hollander Rock expects the park to create 462 jobs, the release said.
GI Plastek has manufacturing sites at its Newburyport headquarters; and in Marysville, Ohio; DeWitt, Iowa; and Wolfeboro, N.H. The company ranked 88th on Plastics News' injection molders ranking with $71.2 million in 2003 sales.
Eimo moving Texas operation out of U.S.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS - Eimo Technologies LP intends to lay off most of its 110 workers in early 2005 and move production from Fort Worth to plants in Brazil, China and Mexico.
S&B Industry Technologies LP, doing business as Eimo LP, notified the Texas Workforce Commission of its intention to begin the layoffs after Jan. 18. A law requires a 60-day notification period.
The layoffs will impact employees in manufacturing, painting, technical, warehousing and administrative positions.
Eimo predecessor Triple S Plastics Inc. set up the facility in 1999 to manufacture cellular telephone parts for industry giant Nokia Oyj, which was assembling the phones in a nearby plant. Eimo acquired Triple S in 2001.
Nurmijarvi, Finland-based Nokia converted its Fort Worth manufacturing plant to a distribution center in 2002.
SPI reports 3Q U.S. machinery statistics
WASHINGTON - U.S. shipments of injection molding presses, extruders and blow molding machines increased in the third quarter of 2004, compared with the same quarter in 2003, according to the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc.'s Committee on Machinery Statistics.
Washington-based SPI declined to break out specific numbers for each type of machine.
SPI also said blow molding machines and extruders showed growth in the third quarter compared with the second quarter of 2004.
Overall U.S. machinery shipments in the third quarter totaled $246 million, SPI said. That figure is a 4 percent decline from second-quarter 2004, but a 22 percent increase from the year-ago third quarter, according to SPI.