JOLIET, Ill. — Ineos Nova, a joint venture between Nova Chemicals Corp. and global petrochemicals giant Ineos, will shut down a Montreal polystyrene production facility by the end of the year.
The closure will cut six percent of the joint venture's polystyrene production and is part of a restructuring that aims to achieve about $50 million in annual synergies.
About 40 jobs will be eliminated due to the closure, the company said Wednesday.
''Shutting down the Montreal site will remove high-cost capacity and enable us to consolidate production at our most efficient manufacturing sites,'' Kevin McQuade.
''We are committed to providing our customers with an effective transition during the coming months.''
In March, Nova announced the deal with global chemicals giant Ineos to expand the two companies' existing European styrene joint venture to include North American styrene and polystyrene plants in Canada and the United States.
The joint venture company is expected to have revenues of about US$3.5 billion a year and will be the world's biggest producer of styrene and polystyrene — widely produced petrochemicals used in making coffee cups, egg cartons, foam meat trays, toys and many other products.
Nova produces plastics and chemicals used in a variety of consumer, industrial and packaging products.
Aside from the joint venture, it has major divisions making olefins and polyolefins, chemicals used in packaging, electronics, aviation, manufacturing and other sectors, and expandable polystyrene.
Headquartered in Pittsburgh and reporting in U.S. dollars, Nova has major operations in southwestern Ontario as well as Alberta.
It was spun off as a separate chemicals producer when the former Nova Corp. of Calgary sold its gas pipeline business to TransCanada PipeLines in the late 1980s.
