Trinseo is trimming capacity, mostly in Europe

Trinseo is cutting uncompetitive manufacturing capacity in a program that it hopes will boost its profitability by $60 million annually. The polymer maker is moving forward with the closure of its styrene plant in Böhlen, Germany. The Pennsylvania-based firm unveiled plans to close this plant in September, saying it had lost $30 million over a prior 12-month period. The company blames the plant’s small size as well as high European natural gas costs. Trinseo is also closing an uncompetitive polycarbonate line at its plant in Stade, Germany. It will continue serving its own polycarbonate compounding business with the plant’s remaining capacity. Trinseo is closing a polymethyl methacrylate sheet plant in Matamoros, Mexico. It will also shut down a styrene-​butadiene latex plant in Hamina, Finland, next year because of regional overcapacity in that market. Trinseo anticipates taking charges of up to $89 million because of the closures.