M&G Resins to shed 100 jobs in Corpus Christi by Thanksgiving – Mossi Ghisolfi Resins Corpus Christi - Arhive
M&G Resins to shed 100 jobs in Corpus Christi by Thanksgiving
Work is continuing on the M&G Resins processing plant, and the company hopes to fill “up to” 250 permanent jobs. Matt Woolbright/Caller-Times
M&G Resins USA is laying off 100 employees in Corpus Christi to offset “financial difficulties” arising from its debt to a Mexican chemical company.
Notices were sent to the Italian plastics giant on Sept. 25, and were announced in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification report released Monday by the Texas Workforce Commission.
The layoffs were expected to be completed on Thanksgiving week — by Nov. 21, the report said.
M&G was said to be in the final stages of a years-long project to open a $1 billion plant on the shores of Nueces Bay.
Read more:Port rail improvements near end as M&G preps opening
Mauro Fenoglio, the global manufacturing director for M&G Chemicals, said the company is “facing financial difficulties,” and is working closely with its lenders to address the situation.
The company now must reduce its operating costs and plant construction activity, he said. M&G’s plants in Corpus Christi, Apple Grove, West Virginia and Sharon Center, Ohio will be affected by the move.
Fenolgio added that employees in the Coastal Bend were made aware of the WARN notices on Sept. 21.
At least one M&G customer — one that was due to be a major recipient of M&G product — has publicly expressed doubts M&G will be able to finish the Corpus Christi plant, let alone fulfill supply orders.
Alpek, a petrochemical company based in Monterrey, Mexico, halted shipments of raw material to M&G facilities two weeks ago in Altamira, Mexico, and Suape, Brazil. Alpek claims M&G’s parent company, resin maker Mossi & Ghisolfi, owes $49 million.
Alpek has a contract to receive 500,000 tons of PET a year from the Corpus Christi plant when it is completed.
“Alpek anticipates difficulties for M&G to conclude the project,” it said in a statement.
Terry Tyzack, an M&G spokesman, said no decision has been made to permanently shutdown operations or construction at this time.
M&G Resins USA has maintained its plant along the Joe Fulton International Trade Corridor remains on pace to open by the end of the year.
When completed, the 412-acre facility will be the world’s largest single-line producer of polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, and purified terephthalic acid, or PTA. Both are resins used to make plastics.
Word of mass job loss at the plant comes just two weeks after Fluor Enterprises, one of the project’s contractors, announced it also would lay off 274 workers at the plant.
M&G officials at that time said the Irving-based engineering, fabrication and construction company was asked to temporarily scale back some of its workforce.
Monika de la Garza, a spokeswoman for Workforce Solutions of the Coastal Bend, said members of the agency’s Rapid Response Team have reached out to the affected.
They offered displaced employees its services, which includes crisis counseling, stress management and job-search assistance.
The project broke ground in December 2014. The plant is expected to generate its own electricity with natural gas, and also calls for a desalination facility for it water use.
M&G Resins USA
by the numbers
412 Size, in acres, of the plant.
250 Permanent jobs to be created
700 Indirect jobs expected to have been generated.
3,000+ Construction jobs during the project
1 million Amount, in tons, of PET expected to be produced each year at the facility.
1.2 million Amount, in tons, of PTA expected to be produced each year at the facility.
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