PORT NECHES, Texas (June 6)—Ameripol Synpol Corp., as part of its plan to streamline operations, will close its Akron sales office and sign a $35 million finance agreement to provide capital to improve its Port Neches styrene butadiene rubber plant. The moves are part of the synthetic rubber producer's effort to take "aggressive steps to bring its operations and facilities in line with today's market that has decreased dramatically since the late 1990s," the firm said in a June 5 statement. No company official was available for further comment.
Ameripol Synpol customers and competitors for several months reported the company planned to close the Akron office. But the SR firm denied that was true. The decision to shut down the office and receive the revolving credit through Congress Financial follows Ameripol Synpol's April announcement it would idle its Odessa, Texas, SBR facility.
The Odessa production shutdown left 194 full-time employees, including 30 contractors at the plant, without jobs. The move eliminated nearly 11 percent of the North American capacity for emulsion SBR, according to International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producer statistics.
The firm said the capital funding will be used to modernize and upgrade its Port Neches facility, as Ameripol Synpol completes its transition from two synthetic rubber plants to one, Edwin Schmidt, vice president and general manager, said in a prepared statement.