DPE's Louisville CR plant will finally close in March

ERJ staff report (DS)

Louisville, Kentucky -- DuPont Performance Elastomers is to finally cease production of all Neoprene-brand polychloroprene at its old Louisville site next March, said DuPont Performance Elastomers. 

The company announced in 2002 that the unit would close in March 2006, but following the storm damage caused by the Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005, kept the unit open for an extra year to build up stocks. In January this year, DPE said the Louisville unit would close at the end of 2007. The latest announcement appears to have extended that date for a further three months.

DPE began building a new facility for CR in LaPlace, Louisiana in 2006, and told ERJ that it has started making rubber at the plant. A spokeswoman told ERJ, "The startup of the new capability is progressing in phases according to plan." DPE has never given a timetable for the LaPlace plant, but has previously said the Louisville facility would not close until its expansion at its Pontchartrain Works facility near LaPlace, Louisiana, was completely on-stream.

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Website of DuPont Performance Elastomers

First news story from Louisville Courier-Journal

Second news story from Louisville Courier-Journal