October 10, 2024 - CÓRDOBA.- Petroquímica Río Tercero as of next week stops producing Toluene Diisocyanate (TDI) and, in that context, fired 125 employees of the 375 it has. The company is the only one that manufactured TDI in Latin America, a product used in the automotive and mattress industry, which is going through a global sales decline to which is added a greater supply by industries installed in Asia.

Through a statement, Petroquímica stated that it has a limited capacity that prevents it from competing with large international companies: "This new stage of Petroquímica Río Tercero is an inevitable and obligatory consequence of a process that the company has been going through in recent years." In this line, he indicated that he will focus his business on solutions for the foam industry and other chemicals, such as Polyaluminum Chloride (PAC), used for water treatment.

Representatives of the Union of Chemical and Petrochemical Industries Personnel set up a protest tent at the entrance to the industrial center of the city; they fear that there will be more layoffs. They called an assembly that resolved to wait for the telegrams of dismissal to arrive to put a plan of struggle into action.

TDI's production is the main area of the company and was created in 1981 precisely for this purpose. Petroquímica's decision directly affects the Río Tercero Military Factory, which sells 90% of the nitric acid it makes.

The mayor of Río Tercero, the radical Marcos Ferrer, confirmed that yesterday the directors of the company informed him of the decision of the dismissals. He added that "they propose that from the imports of this product from China it is obviously much cheaper and they are out of competition and it is no longer convenient for them to produce, but even to become importers."

He maintained that "there may be a domino effect" and that he tried to communicate with "people from the national government" to see if in some way a quota can be put on imports and that it is not so large that the only industry in Latin America that does so, continues to produce."

The company is part of the Piero group which is TDI's main customer for Piero, Suavestar, Cannon and Suavegom Mattresses. The holding company bought it in 1996. In 2014, it announced an investment of US$ 22 million for the modernization and ecological and technical refurbishment of the chlorine and caustic soda production plant.

"Petroquímica Río Tercero is reconverting to ensure the continuity of its operations and improve competitiveness," the statement said.

Source: Lanacion