How Denka's Neoprene Exit Got More Expensive
Denka's semi-annual accounts, filed Monday, carry a 10,491 million yen loss on liquidation of business, up from 9,415 million in the same half last year. The money is labor for material removal at a Louisiana plant that has made nothing since May 2025, the state's WARN list dates the last twenty-six jobs to December 7, and US imports of solid chloroprene rubber now run at nearly twice their 2024 rate with Japan shipping seven tonnes in ten.
Denka's semi-annual accounts went up on Monday carrying a line most people will scroll past. Loss on liquidation of business, ¥10,491 million.
The plant behind that number has not made a kilogram of anything since May 2025.
The same line in the same half last year read ¥9,415 million. So the cost of the stopped plant went up 11.4% in its second year down, and the separate notice Denka filed alongside the accounts says exactly where the money goes: "labor costs associated with material removal and related expenses at Denka Performance Elastomer LLC."
Material removal. Eighteen months after the last batch, somebody is still emptying the LaPlace site, and the emptying bills more than it did a year ago.
"When does a suspended plant stop being an option and start being a demolition?"
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