Lanxess Restarts Rubber Plant as Belgian Strike Ends

German specialty chemicals producer Lanxess is in the process of restarting its 150,000 t/y butyl rubber plant at Zwijndrecht, near Antwerp, Belgium, after a nine-week strike that idled the facility and required the company to supply customers from group sites at Canada, and Singapore.

Lanxess said production workers had agreed to a new two-year contract on wages and working conditions, terms of which were not disclosed. It added that normal supplies to customers will resume "once the plant is fully up and running," a process likely to take about a week.  

The German company said it has invested roughly €250 million in Zwijndrecht - where it currently employs 435 people - over the past several years.  

Belgium's chemical industry association Essenscia recently warned that jobs at the affected site as well as at contractors and logistics companies could be jeopardized if the strike continued.

In late March, Lanxess said the industrial action had already cost the company a single-digit million euro sum.