Global slowdown among factors which shut factory

A GLOBAL slowdown, competition from the Far East and a weakened US dollar were blamed yesterday for the closure of a Japanese chemical company with the loss of nearly 100 jobs.

Shocked staff at the Mitsui Denman plant in Little Island, Co Cork, were told the news by the company’s managing director Robin Gill.

He told them the parent company, Mitsui Mining & Smelting Ltd, based in Tokyo, had decided to cease manufacturing electrolytic manganese dioxide for the alkaline battery market and close the plant in the coming weeks.