Glencore subsidiary Sherwin Alumina is poised to down the shutters of its alumina refinery in Gregory, Texas, said a union official on Friday. A federal bankruptcy judge has allowed more time to the 1.65 million mt/year operations to wind down its operations. The alumina refiner has accordingly notified the United Steelworkers union that it will close the facility, its most valuable asset, on Friday.
According to the source, the bankruptcy judge said the exclusivity period for Sherwin Alumina to submit a plan now extends to December 31. Earlier the company had until September 30 to file a plan. Sherwin now have until March 1 to seek approvals of the plan unlike the earlier deadline of November 29.
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Sherwin filed for bankruptcy in January 11, this year. The judge, in his order, found the latest extension of exclusivity period to be "in the best interests of the debtors' estates, their creditors, and other parties in interest."
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Sherwin in its filing has said it intends to propose a reorganization plan with regulatory agencies soon reflecting clearly the terms of the closure plan and the associated proposed sale of its alumina refinery assets to Corpus Christi Alumina, an affiliate of Commodity Funding.
CCA, Sherwin's senior secured lender, submitted a bid of $54.5 million for the Gregory assets in a court-supervised auction in April.
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