Local management isn’t mentioning an official date, but it is confirming the closure of Emporia’s Thermal Ceramics plant.
The Emporia plant has had the Thermal Ceramics brand since the 1980s, but it is closing this year as its parent company, Morgan Advanced Materials, consolidates the local operations with a plant in Augusta, Georgia. This impacts 35 employees, who have the option of moving or taking severance packages. The separation packages involve conversations with Boilermakers Local 83 based in Kansas City, Missouri, and discussions have not finished as of late Wednesday afternoon.
The company makes chemical components for furnaces.
Morgan Advanced Materials creates thermal products for insulation, heat shields, so-called fired refractory shapes and other high-temperature settings involving aerospace, automotive and marine environments. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, Morgan has 17 manufacturing and/or sales locations in the United States, along with nearly 70 other locations worldwide.
Thermal Ceramics becomes the latest production business with a local connection to close its local operations, following the Tyson Foods announcement in December. It also follows closure announcements from Holiday Resort, Bling and Buckle since early December.
