The Shadow
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Ingevity Corp. is implementing steps to mitigate the impacts of Coronavirus (COVID-19).
“At Ingevity, our number one priority is the health and safety of our employees,” said Rick Kelson, Ingevity’s chairman of the board, and interim president and CEO.
“We are also working diligently to exercise our business continuity plans so that we can continue to supply our customers. And, we remain confident in our financial position and our liquidity is strong,” Kelson said.
“In fact, Ingevity’s first quarter is progressing somewhat better than expected, despite moderate headwinds from the coronavirus,” he continued.
“Nonetheless, the situation is and will be very dynamic as we move through the rest of the year,” he added.
Employee Health
All non-production and non-essential laboratory employees with remote access capability have been instructed to work from home.
Social distancing measures limiting the number of employees in labs and meetings have been instituted.
The company has implemented a ban on all non-essential international and domestic business travel.
Employees returning from business or personal travel internationally or to highly-impacted areas in the U.S. are instructed to self-quarantine for 14 days prior to returning to any company location.
The company has stopped visits to the company’s locations by non-employees who have traveled internationally and to other heavily-impacted areas in the U.S. within the past two weeks.
To date, no domestic or international employees have tested positive for COVID-19.
Manufacturing Operations
Operations at the company’s manufacturing locations in China (Zhuhai, Changshu) resumed following the Chinese New Year in full force on Feb. 10.
The plants continue to run at a rate necessary to meet customer orders which remain steady.
The company’s U.S. and U.K. manufacturing locations continue to run normally with no decreases in production. Plans are in development to adjust production to market needs if necessary.
Manufacturing plants are not experiencing any issues in obtaining raw materials.
All of Ingevity’s manufacturing facilities have pandemic response and business continuity plans in place. Plant leaders are reviewing and preparing to implement those plans if and when necessary.
A kiln replacement outage at the Covington activated carbon facility previously scheduled for April is being delayed until the fall to ensure that it proceeds without interruption.
