CB&I to shut Beaumont site, chop jobs
Energy engineering and construction company CB&I is closing its Beaumont fabrication shop and cutting jobs after the facility suffered “sustained irreparable damage” from Hurricane Harvey.
CB&I is eliminating 455 jobs at the plant, but The Woodlands-based company said about 90 percent of those workers are being relocated to different facilities or job sites in Freeport, Lake Charles, La., and other areas.
CB&I said the job cuts were made without advance notice last week because it took time to realize the severity of the flooding damage at the facility. But CB&I emphasized that it is working to place as many of the workers as possible at other locations.
In a letter filed with the Texas Workforce Commission, CB&I said the damage from flooding was so great that it had no choice but to permanently close the facility. CB&I spokeswoman Gentry Brann,
however, left the door open for other options in a response Monday.
“We are assessing the situation and will make a decision on how to permanently move forward once we know the full extent of the damage,” she added. “It’s too early to speculate on our plans longer term.”
CB&I has struggled financially of late, attempting to rebound through asset sales and dividend cuts. The company said in August it would suspend its dividend and sell off its technology business in an effort to help right itself as a smaller but more successful business and satisfy creditors.
CB&I previously said it hopes to sell its technology business, which includes patents and licensing agreements, for more than $2 billion by yearend, in an effort to wipe out most of its $1.8 billion in debt. The suspended dividend of 7 cents per share each quarter is expected to save CB&I $30 million a year.
CB&I peaked at about 56,000 workers worldwide in 2014 at the height of the oil boom after it nearly doubled in size through the $3 billion acquisition of a competitor, the Shaw Group, of Baton Rouge, La. But that move proved poorly timed as the oil bust got underway. CB&I’s earnings were also dragged down by Shaw’s nuclear construction business, which CB&I has since sold.
CB&I now employs about 32,000, but the number will shrink with the sale of the technology business and its plans to cut another $100 million in annual costs.