Leading manufacturer of specialty chemicals, LANXESS has decided to stop all production at its Ankerweg site in Amsterdam, where it produces base oils for industrial lubricants. According to the release, operations shall be terminated by November 2018.  LANXESS has acquired this site as part of its acquisition of U.S. chemicals group Chemtura.  “We carefully analyzed the site and came to the conclusion that we cannot run production there on a competitive basis,” says Anno Borkowsky, Head of the Additives business unit at LANXESS.

LANXESS can produce the volume of base oils it needs to cover its own demand for the production of high-performance lubricants as well as market demand at its Elmira site in Canada. The company has announced that the contract manufacturing agreement for agricultural active ingredients that represents a substantial part of the activities at the Ankerweg site will end latest in November 2018. 

The company is negotiating with representatives of employees working at this site to find responsible settlement for the employees that will affected by this shutdown. When LANXESS has taken over the production site, it has roughly 100 employees. LANXESS expects about EUR 100 million in synergies by 2020 from its acquisition of Chemtura. This will entail an estimated EUR 140 million in associated one-time costs.