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Rubber company closing one manufacturing unit in Orange

The facility is located on FM 1006 near Chevron Phillips

ORANGE, Texas — A synthetic rubber company has announced it's closing one manufacturing unit in its Orange facility in the second quarter of 2020. 

Arlanxeo Performance Elastomers' facility is located on FM 1006 in Orange near the Chevron Phillips chemical plant.

The company's production unit that makes 'Keltan' rubber grades will be closing. Keltan grades are used in everyday products, like wire and cable for household appliances, cars, tires and roofing materials according to Arlanxeo's website. 

The company says it's going to continue producing Butadiene Rubber and Hydrogenated Nitrile Butadiene Rubber in Orange. 

In a news release, Christian Widdershoven with the company's leadership team said, “We realize that the closure of ARLANXEO´s Keltan EPDM unit will have a deep impact on our people in Orange. Taking care of our employees that devoted time and efforts for the company over the last decades will be our first priority.” 

This is a developing story. Stay with 12News as we work to learn more. 

MORE | Arlanxeo website

From an Arlanxeo news release: 

ARLANXEO, a leading synthetic rubber company, announced today that it intends to realign its production network of Keltan® Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM) elastomers to improve competitiveness and harmonize technology platforms across the Keltan® EPDM portfolio.

As a result, ARLANXEO intends to close its Keltan® production unit in Orange, Texas in Q2 2020. ARLANXEO will strive to limit the impact of the closure by working in close cooperation with all affected stakeholders, both internally and externally. ARLANXEO will endeavour to minimize involuntary separations and to provide alternative opportunities for those affected by the closure.

Christian Widdershoven, Executive Vice President High Performance Elastomers (HPE) and member of ARLANXEO´s Executive Leadership team: “We realize that the closure of ARLANXEO´s Keltan® EPDM unit will have a deep impact on our people in Orange. Taking care of our employees that devoted time and efforts for the company over the last decades will be our first priority.” With regard to customers, Chretien Rooijakkers, Vice-President Marketing & Sales HPE adds: “Our teams will support our customers in North America, and around the globe, to make their transition to our specifically developed alternative Keltan® grades as smooth as possible”.

ARLANXEO intends to continue supporting its customers within North America and to retain its production presence in the US with its Butadiene Rubber (BR) and Hydrogenated Nitrile Butadiene Rubber (HNBR) production units at its Orange, Texas site.

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