DuPont Performance Elastomers finally closes Louisville Neoprene plant

Louisville, Kentucky -- DuPont Performance Elastomers LLC

has closed its polychloroprene plant in Louisville more than five years after

first announcing its plan to shutter the facility.

Only 82 workers remain at the plant to complete decontamination of the

site, according to Ron Durham, vice president of United Steelworkers

Local 8-2002, which organised the plant's hourly workers.

The plant opened in the 1930s and had some 2400 workers in its heyday

in the 1960s, but the last batch of Neoprene rolled off the

manufacturing line in mid-February, according to the company.

The planned closure of the facility caused consternation not only among

employees and the USW, but also among Neoprene buyers such as Gates

Corp., which tried unsuccessfully in 2005 to have the International

Trade Commission lift the 55-percent duties on Japanese Neoprene to

assure supplies.

DuPont Performance Elastomers is moving many of the production lines

for Louisville grades of Neoprene to its Pontchartrain plant at

LaPlace, Louisiana, and the final phase of that transition has just begun, a

company spokeswoman said.