Altra speaks out about plant closure

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

CLOVERDALE -- As was reported in last Thursday's Banner Graphic, Altra Biofuels in Cloverdale laid off the majority of its workforce indefinitely.

On Tuesday, the company released its official statement regarding the layoffs in both Cloverdale and in Coshocton, Ohio.

Regarding the Cloverdale closure, the release read, "Due to the poor margin environment, we have made the decision to stop producing ethanol at our Cloverdale facility. We have and will continue to monitor the margin environment on a daily basis and will assess a restart of the plant as soon as margins improve. In the interim, we regret that we needed to implement a partial layoff to conserve cash, which is critical in
 this adverse capital market environment."

On the other hand, the news about the Coshocton facility, while still troubling for that plant, was more concrete about the possibility of reopening. The Coshocton employees are considered by the company to be on "temporary furlough."

It goes on to say, regarding Coshocton, "We estimate that the furlough period will be of a short duration depending on market conditions and other factors. We intend to resume production in January at which time the bulk of the employees will be called back."

The Cloverdale layoffs were originally reported by one of the affected employees. At that time, company representative Jeff Gilbert was contacted, but had no public comment regarding the shutdown.

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  • Still bittersweet, when these people go back to work, we will be paying $4/gallon for gasoline.

    -- Posted by Xgamer on Wed, Dec 10, 2008, at 6:00 AM
  • I am not in favor of subsidizing products, but this one seems to be a no brainer. Instead of sending billions to the middle east we should be propping up these home grown industries and keeping our money at home and our own citizens employed, as much as possible.

    -- Posted by hoosierpete on Wed, Dec 10, 2008, at 6:21 AM
  • None of my vehicles will run on E85.

    -- Posted by et on Wed, Dec 10, 2008, at 9:20 AM
  • Let's look at this realistically. Ethanol is too expensive to produce. It has to be subsidized by the taxpayers (please quit saying "government subsidies" -- we are the government). Biofuels are not the only fuels that we have in the U.S. We have lots of oil if the politicians and environmentalists will let us drill here. This shut down was to be expected --- especially when gasoline got down to below $2.00/gallon. I'm sorry for the employees that got laid off, but there are a lot of people losing jobs right now. The law of supply and demand still works, doesn't it?

    -- Posted by not gullible on Wed, Dec 10, 2008, at 9:31 AM
  • Oh Come on! I am so sorry that these people lost their jobs. I feel for you, I really do!

    But, The Price of our FOOD went up because of the selling of Ethanol! I am glad it closed. you know that out of 1 acre of corn we get 18 gallons of ethanol? wow that saves money... NOT!

    Face it - it was a stupid idea in the first place. Ethanol doesn't even get good gas milage! I usually got 400 mi/tank and when gas was high, I used ethanol and got 200 mi/tank! THat DOESN'T Save us ANY money!!

    THey should rebiuld the ethanol plant into an Algea growing plant. you can take a 10th of New Mexico and provide bio fuel for the whole US for a YEAR! you get 20,000 gal of fuel from 1 acre of algae! Pond Sludge!! with Algae you can make bio deisel, jet fuel, car gas - etc.. you can make everything we need out of algae! Search Algea Fuel - on the net. (I have been searching it for 6 months)

    THIS is the no-brainer! WE STILL WOULDN'T BE BUYING FROM THE MIDDLE EAST! One state is already trying out algae fuel in their jets...lets hope it catches on!

    & Guess what? it is CHEAPER to make!

    -- Posted by luv2bmom2001 on Wed, Dec 10, 2008, at 2:48 PM
  • Your food prices didn't go up because of the limited amount of people that use ethanol. Your food prices went up because of the record price of diesel fuel. Tractors, combines and harvesters all run on diesel fuel. The tractor trailers that take the crops to market run on diesel fuel. Then it is shipped from the market to the food processors, again with diesel fuel. Then it is shipped to warehouses.. diesel fuel.. then it is shipped to the supermarket... diesel fuel.

    With Diesel fuel being so gosh darned expensive the price is then passed on to the consumer... You don't really think those businesses are going to eat that cost do you?

    Ethanol played a very minor role in the how the prices have gone up at the Super Market.... Diesel Fuel played a HUGE role in how prices have gone up.

    -- Posted by shocktherapy on Wed, Dec 10, 2008, at 6:03 PM
  • This is just another example of why our country is in the shape it's in. Good money making bad decisions. It's time to learn from our mistakes and try not to repeat them. NO MORE BAILOUTS!!

    -- Posted by Rome on Wed, Dec 10, 2008, at 8:05 PM
  • shocktherapy - corn prices have alot more of an impact on food prices than you have been lead to believe. The prices on beef have gone up dramatically (cows eat corn), prices on all dairy products have risen dramatically (cows love their corn), prices on all cereals have gone up (notice a trend, corn!). Don't blame this all on diesel, because that is most definately not the sole cause. Ethanol is a waste of money. Invest that money into hydrogen fuel cells, electric motor studies, something that will help actually end our dependence on oil, not just lower it.

    -- Posted by bobbittle on Thu, Dec 11, 2008, at 12:13 PM
  • You can't just unload hydrogen technology onto the public just yet. It's too simple of an idea, kids can do this in science class. If everyone starts messing aroung with home made hydro fuel generators, how are big companies supposed to make money from it?

    As soon as hydrogen gas production is well known enough for its simplicities, lobbyists will push for strict regulations, and make it expensive to produce so only big energy corporations will be financially capable of mass production.

    That's the beauty of capitolism in America, find a cheap or free resource and exploit it until the cash cows come home!

    -- Posted by Xgamer on Thu, Dec 11, 2008, at 12:53 PM
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