Materials firm Saudi Basic Industries Corp. plans to close its office in Huntersville, N.C., in June 2018.
It expects to move 140 jobs from Huntersville to Houston, spokesperson Shelia Naab said in an email, while 70 new supply chain-related jobs also will be added in Houston, she added.
"This action underscores Sabic's 28-year commitment to the Americas region, and the anticipated growth further reflects the establishment of Houston as Sabic's regional head office in 2015," Naab said.
"We are assisting our employees through this transition and, because business continuity is paramount, we do not expect our customers to be negatively impacted as a result of the relocations."
Huntersville was the headquarters site for the Polymershapes business unit that Sabic sold to Blackfriars Corp. in September 2016. That business was a major distributor of plastic rod, sheet, tube, film and related products. The site now is expected to close on June 29.
Office jobs in Huntersville include finance, human resources, legal and supply chain. These roles "support multiple areas across the business," Naab said.
She added that the Huntersville closing is not connected to the struggles that Sabic has been having with resin deliveries since installing a new enterprise resource planning computer system in October 2016.
Sabic — based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with U.S. headquarters in Houston — began having delivery problems almost immediately after putting the new system in place. Customers for months have been reporting shipments that were late or incomplete or that were of the wrong material.
Market sources have told Plastics News that they were seeing delays for shipments of PC, PC/ABS, polybutylene terephthalate and related compounds made by Sabic. In a recent email, spokesperson Susan LeBourdais said that the firm "is continuing to optimize its recently implemented [ERP] system."
"While we have made substantial progress, we continue to pursue post-implementation actions that will take us to industry-class fulfillment levels," she added. "We continue to provide communications to our customers regarding our progress."
Sabic's situation was further complicated in mid-June when its PC production plant in Burkville, Ala., had to be taken off line because of equipment problems.
In an email, LeBourdais said that the Burkville plant "completed repairs and is resuming normal operations."
"The allocation on certain Lexan [PC] resin grades is still in effect," she added. "We continue to work with our customers to assess their needs and our ability to continue to supply."
