30 September 2016

5N Plus consolidating operations

Specialty metal and chemical products firm 5N Plus Inc of Montreal, Québec, Canada says that it intends to consolidate its operations at Wellingborough, UK with other sites within the group. In addition, in the USA, it will consolidate the operations of DeForest-Wisconsin and Fairfield-Connecticut during first-half 2017 into a newly updated and scaled facility located in the state of Connecticut.

5N Plus provides purified metals such as bismuth, gallium, germanium, indium, selenium and tellurium, and also produces related II-VI semiconducting compounds such as cadmium telluride (CdTe), cadmium sulphide (CdS) and indium antimonide (InSb) as precursors for the growth of crystals for solar, LED and eco-friendly materials applications.

Earlier in September, aiming to improve profitability while reducing earnings volatility, 5N Plus unveiled its strategic plan '5N21', which is based on three main pillars: (a) optimizing balance of contribution between upstream and downstream activities; (b) extracting more value from core businesses, existing assets and capabilities; and (c) delivering quality growth from existing growth initiatives including future M&A activities.

Over the next few quarters, the firm will transfer a number of product lines from Wellingborough to other manufacturing facilities within the group. The primary drivers in determining future locations of the affected product lines are operational synergy, cost competitiveness and client proximity, says 5N Plus.

The restructuring fees associated with the two initiatives are expected to be about $3.5m, with expected payback of less than two years (with the positive impact reaching full potential starting in 2018).

"This specific decision is designed to extract more value from our existing assets as we optimize our core businesses," says president & CEO Arjang Roshan. "The culmination of these actions will result in a more agile operating structure while taking advantage of internal synergies as we increase utilization across other sites within the group," he adds.

Tags: 5N Plus

Visit: www.5nplus.com