Israel Chemicals Inc.’s workers began imposing sanctions on Sunday, Nov. 2, disrupting all shipments out of the company’s plants in southern Israel, including potash and phosphates. The workers are also preventing raw materials from entering production facilities. The sanctions are expected to impact exports if they continue in the coming days.
The workers committee head at the company’s Bromine Compounds subsidiary Avner Ben-Senior said the sanctions were in response to management’s plan to implement a recovery plan that includes cutbacks in the work force and the shutdown of the magnesium plant in Sdom. Ben-Senior said the disruptions at the company’s plants would continue until further notice.
The sanctions come just two weeks after a government appointed committee recommended imposing a graduated windfall profits tax on natural resources. In its final report the committee recommended a windfall profit tax or surtax of between 25 to 42 percent depending on the level of profitability. The tax would be imposed from 2017 and the level would depend on the return on equity.
In response to the sanctions, ICL management said that following the decisions by the government appointed committee the board of directors decided to cancel all investment in Israel and introduce a plan for streamlining its operations including the cutting back of workers and the shutdown of the magnesium plant.
ICL has also decided to focus on its core businesses in the agriculture, food and engineered materials markets. Last week the company announced that it had signed an agreement to sell parts of its ICL Performance Productions division to Japan’s Kurita Water Industries Ltd.