Cosmo Specialty Fibers Announces Operations Restart, Following Temporary Shutdown Due to COVID-19 Market Impacts
News General news
On December 15, 2020, Cosmo Specialty Fibers (Cosmo) began the employment recall processes, progressing toward full operations in early February 2021. After temporarily suspending operations in May 2020 due to slowing global economies, Cosmo has continued to satisfy strategic customer demand through planned inventory and is now experiencing market conditions which warrant restarting. Our customers, many of which supply the global retail clothing sector, have experienced consistent recovery for more than three months, resulting in strong demand for Cosmo lyocell and viscose pulp.
On December 15, 2020, Cosmo Specialty Fibers (Cosmo) began the employment recall processes, progressing toward full operations in early February 2021. After temporarily suspending operations in May 2020 due to slowing global economies, Cosmo has continued to satisfy strategic customer demand through planned inventory and is now experiencing market conditions which warrant restarting. Our customers, many of which supply the global retail clothing sector, have experienced consistent recovery for more than three months, resulting in strong demand for Cosmo lyocell and viscose pulp.
Our business fundamentals and overall strategy remain sound and intact. With the ongoing recovery, we plan on returning to our record-breaking performance of recent times. In fact, we made meaningful improvements during the temporary shutdown. The accomplishments during the outage were noteworthy in many respects:
• Made significant progress in expanding our customer footprint into new geographies and new markets,
• Trademarked our lyocell product, ZhenCelTM, a leading ultra-premium pulp for lyocell production,
• Substantially enhanced product quality with even higher levels of product consistency,
• Meaningfully reduced the environmental footprint of the business,
• Proactively completed several regulatory and maintenance related projects,
• Maintained full regulatory compliance while working closely with State authorities,and
• Continued to engage with Federal resources and external advisors ensuring Cosmo is best educated, informed, and positioned to de-risk our restart.
Our decisions are always driven by doing what is best for the long term, and our decision to begin the restart process follows that commitment. Our workforce is healthy and will return in almost full attendance. Our supply chain partners, while also impacted by the economic downturn, remain strong, resilient, and prepared to reengage. The Cosmo Board of Directors has reviewed the specific details of our restart plan and remain aligned with the timeline.
This current unprecedented business interruption will not deter Cosmo from maintaining our market leading position.
