Is the Chemical Operations future bleak? Sites such as Cottage Grove, Cordova, and Decatur have undergone 100’s of millions of dollars in infrastructure and Water Treatment upgrades. Could the consensus be that 3M needs these Chemicals internally to support multiple business groups and will remain a necessary evil for company success? Aren’t these listed sites “Super Sites” regulated by the federal government? Meaning 3M would probably be unable to part ways regardless if it wished to?
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No chance of buyers for any of these sites, all of which have widely publicized contamination, with the pollutants having an ominous regulatory future. Nor are there companies eager to get into the PFAS making business. IMO, 3M will own these sites, satellite landfills, disposal areas, etc for long long time. Prolly hard to repeat the DuPont / Chemours charade. Best for 3M to repurpose these sites for other manufacturing.
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/3m-agrees-epa-order-sample-and-provide-treatment-pfas-contamination-drinking-water
https://www.regulations.gov/document/EPA-HQ-OW-2020-0582-0059
https://www.pca.state.mn.us/local-sites-and-projects/east-metro-3m-pfas-contamination
https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Office/Cases/3M/docs/PTX/PTX2780.pdf
Candidate to spin out remaining chem ops
3M is in the process of moving a few chemical products from China back to Decatur.
There was a time when 3M has organic growth from 3 to 5 percent a year. Back then, it made a lot of sense to have our own production facilities to protect the proprietary info and process design. I remember a Dow agricultural business customer who visited the London Ontario plant and was denied a plant tour for that very reason. That was 20 years ago though.
With organic growth next to nothing these past 10 or more years, the only growth has been in acquisitions, including the earplugs nightmare aearo.
If the proprietary info was so valuable, we'd see the historical organic sales growth. I'm sure tireman sees that too and knows must of the so-called technology is actually quite overrated as far as growth and profits. All the more reason I see 3M being dedicated to only research and marketing and leave the rest to China and India.
There are so many trade secrets protected by these sites. I don’t think 3M will be moved to all outsourced chemicals anytime soon.
I’m not sure that there is any “Promising Proprietary products” right now. Maybe this is an u true statement for 3M’s sake. Anyone that has heard of any, please do share.
For a company that spent what, one of two billion on A3M?, I can see them spending money wastefully even to the point of paying a company in China to make some of the promising proprietary products to save a few bucks. And then have the technology stolen and sold to a Chinese competitor.
Don't put anything past mike, monish, and tireman.
I think over the long term, say 10+ years as a guess, I would expect nearly all small-molecule chemical manufacturing to be outsourced. Some polymerization work and compounding will stay longer term, but it will be only the very proprietary/confidential processes.
As for the land itself, I think 3M may be stuck with it for a while. Unless/until the US government lets a Superfund type cleanup happen, the liability to sell the land is too extreme. There are very few chemicals that would surprise me to be in the soil in Cottage Grove or Cordova.
It’s hard to Fathom the thought of corporate investing 100’s of millions into each site in this particular stage if it is considered unnecessary. However, it’s not far fetched. A retired co-worker used to say “3M has spent themselves rich”.. certain chemical plants do contain proprietary processes and equipment that I can’t imagine would be transferred overseas. that doesn’t mean that they won’t be consolidated or otherwise eliminated from the portfolio entirely.
The visit to our facility from Gibbons was pretty much as you described! Wanting more for less!
By the way, have any of you production personnel been "graced" with a visit to your site by said pompous ja----s tireman Gibbons?
How did it go? Did he have any silver bullet wisdom ideas to share/impose?
3M will always own legal liability for these locations. Some companies have chosen to develop the products and market them but have 3rd parties actually manufacture them. I know someone who worked for the Dupont agricultural chem business. They went from making 80 percent in house to outsourcing almost all of the expense products to China and India. These products had a lot of nasty waste and handling issues.
3M may choose that model since it wouldn't be easy to be sued if the production and waste are in the 3rd world countries. Not hoping to see that happen in any way but this company seems to look at manufacturing as a necessary evil and not a strength.
And yes WYW has been a downer for long time production people like me. Absolutely no benefit and really no thanks. Tireman Gibbons is a pompous ja----s who visits plants and tells them they cost too much and need to make more with less, unlike Starbucks that charges more for less.