Adisseo is planning to concentrate all its French powder methionine production at Roches-Roussillon. This project aims to safeguard the competitiveness of Adisseo's methionine activities in Europe by adapting its industrial facilities to an increasingly competitive environment.
In this context, it is planned not to restart the powder methionine workshop at the Commentry site, which has already been shut down since October 2022 because of the structural deterioration in market conditions. Worldwide, methionine production capacity has been growing faster than demand, leading to a mismatch between supply and demand, particularly in Europe, where demand for powdered methionine is falling. The utilization rate of industrial tools worldwide is set to fall by around 15% between 2023 and 2026, to 80% compared with almost 95% in 2018.
After taking the time to conclude that no option would restore this plant's competitiveness, Adisseo decided not to restart it. As a result, 47 net jobs are to be cut at the Commentry site, out of a total workforce of 335 (as of December 1, 2023).
“We are facing a significant and lasting change in the methionine market, both worldwide and in Europe. The challenge for Adisseo is to maintain its global competitiveness in this sector, in an economic context under pressure. Our ambition to be a major player in the methionine sector remains unchanged, and we need to rely on a competitive European production platform to compete with global players. In keeping with our social tradition, we are committed to working with employee representative bodies to support each employee concerned in his or her professional repositioning,” said Hervé Alexandre, executive director of Adisseo's Methionine SBU.
Beyond that, Adisseo is determined to preserve its industrial footprint in the Commentry area. To meet this challenge, Adisseo has invested nearly EUR 30 million in Commentry between 2021 and 2023 and plans to invest a further EUR 20 million in 2025.
The plan for the site is to focus on the production of Smartamine, a high-value-added product for which Commentry is the world's leading manufacturer, and Vitamin A, for which EUR 2 million have recently been invested.
In addition to its own activities, Adisseo will continue to identify any partner or industrial project likely to set up on the Commentry platform, to benefit from its infrastructure and know-how. The other sites of the European platform, and particularly the French sites, are not affected by this project.
